Becoming an Heir
by LostPipersChild
Summary: The First Part of the Will has escaped and with the help of Monday's Dusk, chosen a Rightful Heir. Mister Monday scrambles to hush up his blunder before the other Trustees can find out, but only hastens his doom. Ellie must traverse the Lower House to find the Will if she ever hopes to get home. WARNING - some swearing.
1. Chapter 1

**This is a rewrite of a story I posted some time ago and then deleted. **

**Chapter One**

**Choosing an Heir**

In the beginning, there was Nothing. That was how mortals liked to start the story. And for once, they were not entirely wrong. In the beginning, before the House or the Earth, there had indeed been Nothing. With a capital N mind you. That oily, smoky black substance which made up the Void and which was fatally harmful to all who touched it, be they mortal or otherwise. And yet Nothing, for those who had the power to shape it, held the potential to create anything and everything. It was from the Void that all life sprung after all. And the very first being to emerge from the Void was the Architect. She was not yet the Architect as she would later be known, she was not even a being in the strictest meaning of the word.

But she was undoubtedly alive, and from her all other things resonated. It began with atoms which became stars, and from the star dust came the planets and eventually the creatures which inhabited them. After many ions without form or thought, the Architect was given life by certain of the creatures she had made, those which developed self-awareness. There were many species of them once, but soon they dwindled to a single race. Humans is what they eventually called themselves. Their creativity rivalled even that of the Architect and they became her favourite creation. Once she walked amongst them, but they were mortal and passed her by as swiftly as mayflies. After a time the Architect began to experiment, creating a new plane of existence out in the Void which mimicked earth and which she could call her home. She named it the House.

* * *

The Upper House was not the most depressing domain – that dubious honour went to the Far Reaches – but it was a close second. Monday's Dusk pulled the brim of his top hat lower over his brow and clutched the handle of his umbrella, but still the relentless rain found a way to splatter his face. He wiped it irritably with his free hand and looked around carefully. He shouldn't be conspicuous, his umbrella was black like many of those in the crowded Saturn Square and his overcoat a muted grey. Normally his height would have been a problem but here in the Upper House it wasn't unusual for denizens to be over six feet tall. And besides, he was a Dusk, he was used to moving unnoticed.

"Do not dawdle, it looks suspicious," said a voice in his ear and he winced. The creature clinging to his neck was hidden by his high collar but there was still a chance someone would hear it.

"Perhaps it is best if you do not speak, my Lord Will," Dusk suggested in a muted voice. Really, it would have been best if the Will hadn't come at all, not here to their enemy's doorstep. But the first part of Will had spent ten thousand years as a prisoner and it was about to be fulfilled, it wasn't about to stay behind.

Dusk descended the steps of the Elevator Station and set off at a brisk pace through the downpour and the crowd. It was six o clock, shift change, and the best time to travel unnoticed. Or so Dusk thought.

"Cousin?" called a voice through the noise and Dusk's heart stopped. He turned and saw his counterpart in the Upper House, Saturday's Dusk, striding towards him and scattering lower denizens out of his path. Monday's Dusk tried his best not to look guilty and fixed a bland smile onto his face.

"Good evening," he greeted. Saturday's Dusk was not a subdued fellow like a Dusk ought to be, instead he was flamboyant and full of himself. He oozed smugness like many denizens of the Upper House, convinced as they were of their own superiority.

"How are you my dear chap?" Saturday's Dusk asked. He had recently acquired a monocle from somewhere and it made him look utterly ridiculous. "What brings you all the way up here? Lower House getting too chaotic for you?"

It was true that the Lower House was in utter disarray, nothing worked properly and hadn't for years, but Monday's Dusk didn't like other denizens commenting on it. Especially not insufferable Upper House fops.

"Not at all," said Monday's Dusk, unable to stop a note of coldness creeping into his voice. "I am here on official business for my master."

Saturday's Dusk raised an eyebrow delicately.

"Really? I wouldn't have thought Monday had any interest in live records. After all, they aren't his department until they die."

What he really meant was he didn't think Monday could stay awake long enough to issue any order, of any kind. It was the worst kept secret in the House that Monday had spent the majority of the past ten thousand years falling asleep in his soup, and that it was getting worse. Monday's Dusk bristled.

"Mister Monday," he gritted out. "Is concerned that a number of dead records have not been sent on to us, he believes they may be being overlooked. I have an appointment with the head of the Department for Record Reassignment to straighten the matter out."

Dusk wasn't sure his cousin was swallowing his lie, he was gazing at him in a most unnerving way. For one panicked moment he worried he was going to offer to accompany him, but luck was on his side. A runner had just appeared, a ragged Piper's Child in a yellow Mackintosh that was far too large for him. He bravely tugged on Saturday's Dusk's coat.

"Please sir, there's a bit of an emergency up on level sixty four. One of the chains is stuck and the whole office is tilting like somefin' mad!"

Saturday's Dusk looked down at the boy irritably, shooing him away from his expensive coat.

"Very well I'll be there in a moment," he snapped. "Well cousin I wish you luck with your mission. Good day."

Monday's Dusk tipped his hat and watched his cousin until he was out of sight before letting out a sigh of relief. That had been a close call. He didn't want to think what would happen to him if Superior Saturday found out what he was here to do.

"Quickly!" the Will hissed at him.

Dusk continued on his journey with renewed urgency and after five minutes of weaving between the narrow streets he came upon a promising building. It had four stories and through an open window he could hear the furious sound of hundreds of typewriters at work. He peered through the rain spattered glass and saw an office with row upon row of desks set out in a grid pattern. Each desk had a typewriter and a brass lamp with a green shade made of glass, positioned in exactly the same spot on each of them. Saturday always had been a control freak.

Dusk opened the door and slipped inside before anyone on the street could take any notice of him. He was now in a corridor, with doors at regular intervals along each wall, all of which were thankfully closed. He glided along in silence until he came to a set of stairs leading up to the floors above, and also down into the basement. He listened carefully and heard movement above, but none below, so that was the direction he went.

The Upper House was responsible for creating and maintaining the records of every living creature on Earth. Every minute detail of their lives was noted down for posterity. When the subject of a record died, the paperwork was sent to the Middle House to be bound into a book, and then to the Lower House to be archived. But not every record was attended to every second of every day. Most live records, once created, were stored in filing cabinets and automatically updated themselves with self-replenishing ink. Occasionally they were checked by the Surveyors to make sure they were in order, which was why Dusk had to be quick. He was here to steal one after all.

The basement he found himself in was dark and full of filing cabinets. He approached the nearest, which had a plaque on the side detailing its content. _Homo Sapien Records Beginning 3:00 am – 4:00 am on the Second of January, 2017AD (Gregorian Calendar)._

Dusk eased over the second drawer down so that it would make the least amount of noise possible and thumbed through the files. He pulled one out at random and flipped through it.

"No," the Will hissed, in what it clearly thought was a whisper, but which echoed around the room. "This record is too young, we need an adult human!"

"How old would you like the Heir to be my Lord Will?" Dusk asked, closing the file and replacing it carefully. "Is there a specific criteria?"

"Only that they be physically and mentally able. I think it unwise to choose a human which has not yet reached maturity."

"Humans stop growing in their late teens, and reach mental maturity by their early twenties." Dusk remembered. Though he, as a Denizen of the Lower House, had never written a record in his life, he had made a private study of humans and their habits. They were the Architect's most interesting creation after all. "Files of that age would be a few floors below I believe."

Dusk returned to the stairs and continued down into the bowels of the building. He kept going for several minutes until he came upon a promising landing. He checked the signs on the cabinets and found the records to be the right age. He was about to settle down for several hours of meticulous selection, narrowing down suitable candidates, when alarms began to clamour throughout the building.

"Damn," he cursed, glancing towards the ceiling. "My cousin must have been more suspicious that I thought."

"Hurry!" the Will cried, not bothering to lower its voice anymore. "We must not leave empty handed."

Dusk rushed to the cabinets and yanked open a drawer. There was no time to read any of the files, he just grabbed one at random and stuffed it inside his coat, slamming the drawer shut again. As boots hammered on the stairs and bobbing lights from strom lanterns filled the room he melted into the shadows, clutching his loot tightly and praying it held the details of a sane and bodily able young human.

* * *

It had taken a while for Ellie to really pay attention to the stranger. She'd first noticed him when he got on the bus after her, he hadn't paid, or she hadn't seen him pay. She hadn't seen him hand over any change to the driver or scan his pass or phone. But the driver didn't say anything so Ellie assumed she must have missed it and took her seat halfway down the bus, leaning her forehead against the cold window and breathing a tired sigh. It had been a long day at the restaurant, her feet were aching and she couldn't wait to get home and kick off her hideous black work shoes. She spent most of the journey mindlessly scrolling through her phone, texting her mother and skimming the news, but a prickling sensation made her look up.

The man who may or may not have paid was sitting in one of the inward facing seats and was staring intently at her. Or, she thought he was staring at her, it was hard to tell because he was wearing dark, round glasses. In fact, his whole ensemble was bizarre, a dark grey overcoat, a black waistcoat and highly polished smart shoes. The moment he'd been caught staring he turned his head to gaze out of the window. Feeling rather unnerved, Ellie lowered her eyes to her phone again but kept peeking at the stranger out of the corner of her eye.

Her feeling of unease increased tenfold once the bus reached her stop and stepped down, only to the followed by the stranger. Ellie strode away down the street and balled her hand in her coat pocket, splaying her keys between her fingers. Who was this bloke? And why was he wearing sunglasses at this time of year when the sky was already dark? She had to resist the temptation to run, after all, the stranger hadn't done anything yet and he had made no attempt to catch up with her. A cold wind blew down the street and Ellie shivered, keeping her free hand firmly clasped on her handbag.

She knew she was being slightly ridiculous, the poor man was probably just another dreary city worker on his way home, but Ellie was a cautious soul. She would have been less nervous if there had been other people around, but this was a quiet street and the chill kept most people indoors this time of year.

Ellie's pace had increased by the time she turned onto Ferris Street where she made a bee-line for number seven. At the top of the front steps she glanced nervously towards the main road and her heart stopped to see the stranger still following her. Ellie scrambled to get the door open and once she was inside she practically slammed it shut, double bolting it just to be sure. She was breathing rather hard and she jumped out of her skin when the living room door opened and her housemate, Charlotte, poked her head into the hall.

"What's up?" she asked with a frown.

"Nothing," said Ellie quickly, trying to get a grip on herself. "It's just really cold out there."

She didn't want to sound foolish by telling Charlotte the truth so she shrugged off the matter, along with her coat, which she hung up on the stand. Charlotte came out of the living room properly and took a sit of tea from her mug before saying,

"You look like hell, bad day?"

"Urgh, just – customers, you know?" Ellie groaned, kicking away her shoes and heading for the tiny kitchen at the end of the hall.

Charlotte hummed sympathetically and followed her.

"I know mate, but you'll find something better soon, I know you will."

As Ellie went about making herself a cup of tea she rolled her shoulders and winced. She knew she ought to be grateful for the overtime, but her pitiful pay-check made it all feel a bit pointless. Charlotte had been lucky, she'd landed a dull yet comfortable job with the local council straight out of university, whilst Ellie was still doing time on the minimum wage until something better came up.

"Mondays suck," she concluded, now stirring sugar into her drink. "What do you want to do tonight then? We could start that new series you were on about?"

"Sorry, I'm going to Lydia's in a minute," said Charlotte apologetically. "She was working late too but she said she'd be home by seven."

The thought of being alone in the house with strange men lurking about was not a pleasant one, but, on the plus side, it meant Ellie would have sole control of the telly. As the two girls went back into the living room, the letter box rattled and an envelope fell onto the welcome mat.

"Bit late for post," Charlotte observed, stooping down to retrieve the letter. "It's for you."

She handed it over and Ellie frowned at the writing. There was no stamp, the paper was cream coloured and had an expensive feel to it, at her name and address was handwritten in loopy letters. Once in the living room, Ellie plopped onto the sofa, set her mug on the side table and opened the envelope, which was sealed with a blob of red wax.

But there was nothing inside, no letter, no card, not a single word anywhere.

"Well, what's the point of that?" Ellie asked irritably, completely unfolding the envelope and flipping it over a couple of times. "Who uses sealing wax these days?"

Her mind suddenly threw up the image of the bespectacled stranger and she leapt up from the sofa to peer through the curtains at the street below. But it was deserted, there was no sigh of the stranger, or anyone else for that matter.

"Charlotte, be careful when you go out," said Ellie, still looking up at the down the street. "There are some proper weirdos around tonight."

* * *

By the time Dusk returned to the Day Room, chaos truly was reigning. The handsome manor house was Mister Monday's private residence, and the place he was supposed to hear petitions from the denizens of the Lower House. However, Monday only managed to hear one or two cases a year nowadays so the Day Room was rarely bustling with activity. Tonight however all the windows were ablaze with light as Dusk walked down the gravelled drive and when he opened the front doors he found the entrance hall packed with clerks and brow beaten book keepers running hither and thither with their arms full of papers, and a few blue coated Commissionaires were dotted about the place.

One of them saluted Dusk as he appeared and said in a voice that crackled through the wire grate it had instead of a mouth,

"Monday's Dusk required to report to the parlour!"

_Cheap rubbish_, Dusk thought as he bypassed the automaton and proceeded to the parlour off the entrance hall. The table was stacked with parchment and sitting in his bath chair across the polished wood was Mister Monday. He had the appearance of a thirty year old human, with blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Or rather, they had once been bright, now they dropped like a basset hound and were bloodshot. His hair, which had once been short and well-groomed had grown shoulder length from years of neglect and hung limply around Monday's face. He had the appearance of a drinker, but Dusk knew the true reason for his master's deplorable state. Sloth.

He had not even bothered to dress properly for the meeting with his Times. He had merely thrown a silk kimono on over his snowy white nightgown.

"Dusk?" Monday asked blearily. "Is that you? Where have you been? We've been looking for you for _weeks._"

His last word was almost lost in a huge yawn. Monday nearly upset his tea but his loyal butler, Sneezer, managed to save the china at the last moment.

"Apologies, my Lord, I have been down in the Archives for the past few months. Disturbing reports of Nithlings terrorising the librarians. I only returned to the upper levels an hour ago when my Midnight Visitors informed me of the crisis."

"Crisis? It's a catastrophe!" Monday's Dawn wailed. Dusk's sister had always been prone to dramatics. "The First Part of the Will has escaped! It slipped right past my Inspector Corps. It must have had help, it would have been impossible for it to escape its bond on its own!"

"I have already interrogated the two idiots who were on watch duty this decade, and they admitted that they just _popped out_ to make the tea. I took the liberty of demoting them and putting them on the first train to the Far Reaches. Grim Tuesday always needs more miners."

The speaker was Dusk's brother, Monday's Noon. He had just appeared at the door to the library and now their sister was glaring at him. Noon was Mister Monday's principle servant, the tallest of the three Times and arguably the most powerful. He had a way of lording this over his brother and sister, though they had all once been close. Mister Monday was ignoring this outbreak of dirty looks as he was ringing his hands and looking more awake than he had in millennia.

"We can't let Saturday find out!" he moaned. "She'll skin me alive! Lord Sunday might even get involved. We have to keep this affair entirely under wraps."

Noon coughed and everyone looked at him.

"The Will has named an Heir, there is no getting around the fact, but if we got to him before the Will then we could still salvage the situation. An imprisoned Heir can't claim the First Key."

"Got to _her_," Dusk corrected irritably. "The Heir is a woman."

"Whatever," Noon sniffed dismissively. He then checked his large golden pocket watch. "It is still Monday on Earth, we could send a few Commissionaires to snatch this – this," he glanced down at the open file on the table. "This Eleanor Green, and the other Days would be none the wiser."

"I think you are forgetting about the Original Law, brother. We cannot interfere with the affairs on Earth," Dusk reminded the room.

The Original Law was the Architect's first and most important rule. There was to be no interference with her mortal creations beyond observation. Of course the Days broke this law every time they sent out ships to trade for tea, sugar and fine china, or every time Grim Tuesday sent out his servants to steal priceless artefacts. But they were just subtle enough not to get slapped with a massive fine.

Monday seemed to be considering the matter and his Times watched tensely for his decision. But he never reached a decision, he seemed to be on the verge of saying something but his head merely rolled to one side and he began snoring. Dusk had to restrain himself from growling in frustration. This was exactly the reason he had betrayed his master and freed the Will in the first place. Dawn gave a tiny sigh and Noon raised a delicate eyebrow.

"Sneezer," he said in exasperation, "If you would."

The ancient butler shuffled forward and prodded Mister Monday with the end of a long stick he kept just for moments like these. Monday jolted and looked around blearily.

"What, what?" he mumbled. "What's this? What do you want?"

"Would you like us to go to Earth and secure the Heir, sir?" Noon asked patiently. Monday blinked at him for a few moments in confusion, then he nodded.

"Yes, yes, do whatever you want. Just don't let the other Days find out!"

Then he promptly fell asleep again and Noon gave the nod to Sneezer to wheel their master back to his bedchamber.

"Well that's settled then, I'll summon my Sergeant and she can –"

"I'm terribly sorry brother," Dusk interrupted sharply. "But I believe that the hour on Earth is fifty-six minutes past eleven. The only Denizens who can set foot out of the House now are my Midnight Visitors."

Noon scowled, realising that Dusk was right. He tapped his finger irritably on the table before sighing.

"Fine, send a few dreary Midnight Visitors. Just make sure they get a hold of the Heir with as little fuss as possible. I don't want a Blatant Interference Fine on my desk."

* * *

Four minutes was not a very long time in which to carry out a mission this delicate, or curious. Leliel had been a Captain of the Midnight Visitors for over ten thousand years and her boss had never asked to do something this strange before. Monday's Dusk was usually so proper, he would never dream of breaking the Original Law. And yet now he had ordered Leliel to travel to Earth and essentially kidnap a human. The mission was quite straightforward, go to number seven Ferris Street and bring the human called Eleanor Green to the Lower House. Dusk wanted her brought to the Deep Archives for some reason, rather than the Day Room or the Atrium, and Leliel was not one to question her superior.

But for the life of her, she could not see what was so special about this human. The house she lived in was quite small and shabby looking, an unremarkable terrace in the suburbs. Leliel silently opened the front door with a little House Sorcery and climbed the narrow stairway to the first floor, with two of her men at her back. Her sharp ears detected that there was only one human heartbeat in the house, in the front bedroom. The door was slightly ajar and a dim light spilled out into the corridor. Leliel peered cautiously into the room and saw their quarry standing over by the window. She had her back to Leliel, and was no taller than a Lower Denizen, with a cloud of chestnut-brown hair. She was obviously about to go to bed, as she was wearing loose, powder blue pyjamas and her feet were bare.

The human twitched the curtain to the side and peered down into the street below. Leliel crept into the room, silent as a shadow and advanced on the human. Dusk had said that on no account should she be harmed, but humans could be jumpy and might hurt herself if she reacted badly to their presence. Leliel lifted her hand and held three fingers extended so her men could see. She lowered each finger in turn. Three. Two. One.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

**Delivery Issues**

Ellie knew she was being paranoid, but she still couldn't help checking the street one more time before getting into bed. Through the slit in the curtains, she looked down and searched for any sign of the stranger in the grey coat. The glare of the orange street lamp cast everything below in an eerie light, but there was no one around. Ellie fiddled with the pendant on her necklace, tugging and worrying at it before a yawn overcame her. It was late, near midnight, and she had another full shift tomorrow. She was about to reach up and undo the clasp on the chain when it happened.

An arm grabbed her around the middle and just as she drew breath to scream, a hand clapped over her mouth to stifle any noise. Ellie squirmed like a mad thing, trying in vain to pull the hand away. She kicked and elbowed and wriggled but her attacker did not let go. They lifted her clean off the ground and swung around to face the room. It was now that Ellie saw that there were two others in her room, men dressed all in black with pointed, conical masks over their heads, like plague doctors. But it wasn't the strange get-up that made Ellie freeze, it was the sight of the coal black wings sprouting from their shoulders.

Her first thought was, _angels_. Her second was, _demons_. And her third was, _weird costumes_. She started to struggle again and the person behind her whose hold felt like a straight-jacket said,

"Amryn, get the Door!"

Her – she sounded female – voice was strange and echoing so Ellie assumed she was also wearing one of the masks. One of the men in front of her drew a small black pouch from his belt and took a pinch of glittering powder. He threw this against the bedroom wall and Ellie's eyes widened in shock as the wall sucked in on itself, leaving a gaping black portal in its wake. Her captor swung her under her arm like a parcel and carried her towards the yawning hole and Ellie finally had a chance to scream.

"Let me go! Please!"

The angels – demons – whatever they were, completely ignored her and one by one they spread their wings and flew through the portal. Ellie screwed up her eyes against the rush of wind and was too terrified to keep screaming. When at last she did take a peek she found herself surrounded by pitch black on all sides as they flew.

The angels shone in the darkness so they were clearly visible and then, before them, a pinprick of light appeared and grew larger and larger until it became rectangular in shape, like a door, cut out of the darkness. But before they could reach it another bright light flashed in front of them and they drew up short in mid-air.

"Halt!" the man shouted.

He also had wings, though his were pure white. He was wearing a powdered wig and a blue velvet coat. He also had a sword in his hand a stern expression on his face.

"Stand aside Lieutenant!" the lead angel cried, drawing her own sword. "This is no business of yours."

"Everything that happens inside the Front Door is my business, Captain Leliel. Now tell me, why are you transporting this mortal to the Lower House? It is a blatant violation of the Original Law."

"It isn't your job to police the Original Law," Captain Leliel growled. "Your job is to kill any Nithlings that find their way in here before they can reach Earth. We are on a mission from Mister Monday himself so you would do well to get out of our way."

The Lieutenant shook his head in a weary sort of way and then attacked with lightning speed. The angel holding Ellie dropped her so it could draw its own weapons and she let out a startled scream. But after a second or two she realised she was only sinking, as though she was in water not air. Above her head, the Lieutenant was holding his own against the three angels. Then Ellie felt something hook her ankle and she looked down, but there was nothing there. But she was definitely being sucked towards the brightly lit door.

"No!" Ellie yelped, trying to fight the sensation, but it was no good. She was whipped around until she was hurtling head first towards the door. She lifted her arms in front of her face as she shot through it like a bullet.

On the other side she lost momentum and she hit the ground with a painful thud. She slid several feet until she came to halt flat on her back and was completely winded. For several long seconds she lay there, scared to move in case something was broken. Her fingers told her she was lying on soft grass and a cool breeze told her she was outside. Once she'd caught her breath and realised she was only bruised and startled, not seriously injured, she slowly opened her eyes. She wasn't outside after all. Far, far above her head, higher than her mind told her was possible, was a great glass dome. It looked like the ceiling of an old train station, with iron girders crisscrossing it in a grid pattern, and frosted glass in between.

But it was too high to be possible, miles and miles above her head, where a sky ought to be. She stared at it for a very long time trying to make sense of it but it was no good. Ellie sat up with a groan and put her head in her hands, kneading her eyelids for several more minutes before looking around. She was on a hill of neatly manicured grass, and down below she could see a city. Its brick buildings and cobbled streets were very quiet, with only a few dark figures dotted around. The place had the sleepy feeling on the early morning, before the sun had risen. And the entire city, a huge expanse, easily the size of central London, was encased in the Dome.

Ellie took a deep breath which failed to calm her hammering heart and wrapped her arms about herself. There was no sign of the angels, or the Lieutenant. The only thing on the hill besides herself was a huge freestanding door. She turned her attention to this. It was twice as tall as a normal door and it stood between two marble pillars. The wood was decorated with intricate metalwork which appeared to be shifting and twisting, until one concentrated on it and it stopped. Ellie walked around it twice to make sure no one was lurking on the other side and then she stared at it some more. Maybe it was just a piece of art, not meant to be functional at all. But she had flown out of somewhere, and it was the only thing up here.

_Am I dead?_ Ellie thought to herself. Angels would suggest that that was the case, but this place didn't feel like Heaven. It was too solid, and wasn't pain supposed to go away when you died? Her back was killing her where she'd hit the ground and there was a throbbing bruise under her ribs where the angel's arm had dug into her. And besides, she'd been feeling perfectly fine before they'd showed up.

A sudden change in the light made her look up. The Dome was lightening, turning pink and gold, as though someone had just turned up the dimmer switch. Then something flashed behind her and she turned in time to see a column of bright golden light shoot up from the nearest building towards the Dome. Another joined it, then another, and another, until the entire town was glowing. There was a particular concentration from the roof of a large building a few blocks away.

"Pretty, isn't it?"

For the second time that night, Ellie nearly had a heart attack. She jumped and whipped around, but there was still no one in sight.

"Who's there?" she asked shrilly.

"Oh, wait a moment," said the disembodied voice and then the metalwork on the door twisted into the shape a person. The next second, a man had stepped out of the pattern, the Lieutenant. He bowed slightly to Ellie and smiled pleasantly.

"Good morning young lady. I hope you are not injured from you're stumble?"

"No," Ellie managed to squeak out, still gawking at the man.

"Good. Troubling business. I always thought the Midnight Visitors to be a decent lot, but I was clearly mistaken. Snatching humans from their beds in the dead of night, what is the House coming to?"

He tutted and shook his head.

"Is this Heaven?!" Ellie blurted out. "Were those people angels? Or, or demons?!"

The Lieutenant raised his eyebrows in slight surprise. He seemed to be the kind of person who never got overly excited about anything.

"Heaven?" he repeated. "Good Architect, no! This is Doorstop Hill, the primary station for the Front Door in the Lower House. And that," he pointed down at the city where the lights had all faded away by now. "Is the Atrium. It is where most of the administrative buildings for the Lower House are located."

"Um, ok," Ellie said in a small voice, still not understanding. "But, I'm not dead?"

"You are standing upright and talking to me," the Lieutenant said kindly. "If you are dead, you are making a very good show of being alive. Now then, those Midnight Visitors said they took you from Earth on Mister Monday's orders. Why?"

"I don't know!" Ellie said desperately. "I don't understand what's going on! I don't even know who Mister Monday is!"

"He is the ruler of the Lower House. He holds the First Key."

The Lieutenant gazed at her curiously for a few moments before holding out his hand.

"Well, in any case, I am the Lieutenant Keeper of the Front Door. I guard the portal between the House and Earth. Can't have things getting mixed up; that would be chaos."

Ellie hesitated, then shook his hand. It was very cold.

"I'm Ellie," she said lamely.

"Pleased to meet you Miss Ellie. Now, I am afraid I must bid you good day. It is shift change you see and that is a particularly dangerous time inside the Front Door. All sorts of nastiness tries to sneak past me. And I must patrol all on my own since the Captain Keeper disappeared last millennia."

"Wait!" Ellie cried. "Please, I need help. I don't know what's going on. Can you help me get back home?"

The Lieutenant Keeper looked at her intently. After looking her up and down a shrewd glint came into his eyes.

"This may seem an odd question Miss, but have you by any chance received a letter from the House in the past day or so?"

Ellie frowned a little and then remembered the blank envelope with the fancy sealing wax.

"I did get a letter," she said slowly. "But it didn't say anything. It was just a blank piece of paper."

The Lieutenant nodded sagely.

"Ah, this all becoming clearer now," he said. "I believe I know why you have been brought here. I'm afraid I can't let you through the Front Door back to Earth just yet Miss."

"Why?!" Ellie asked in a panic. "You said it was a portal! Can't you just send me back?"

"There is somebody you ought to meet here in the Lower House before you return to Earth," the Keeper explained. "The Will of the Architect. They will help you. I believe they may be somewhere in the Atrium below, but in hiding. You should find them and speak to them."

"Why?"

"There are things only the Will can explain to you. But you must be weary. Mister Monday sent his servants to kidnap you for unsavoury purposes, you are in grave danger. Avoid the authorities whilst you are searching for the Will. Particularly the Commissionaires, they wear blue coats and carry whistles. Good luck to you."

And with that he melted back into the Front Door.

Ellie could hear the Atrium coming to life below her, faint voices were drifting up the hill on the breeze and the clatter of carriages rolling down the streets. She shivered in the wind and scowled. How could there be a breeze _inside _the Dome?

She put a tentative hand on the Front Door. It felt real enough, just like any other door, but it didn't open no matter how hard she pushed. It seemed clear that the Lieutenant wasn't going to let her through until she had spoken to the this Will person for some reason. Ellie looked down at herself then and sighed. She was of course, still in her pyjamas, and barefoot. The wind wasn't very cold but it was still disconcerting to walk around without any underwear on. She dithered for a minute or two before growling and curling her hands into fists.

_Stop procrastinating_, she told herself sternly. This was clearly some sort of mad dream, though she couldn't remember getting into bed. The best thing to do was to let it runs its course.

With purposeful strides, she began walking down the hill, towards the Atrium.

* * *

Several hours after leaving Doorstop Hill, Ellie was deep in the heart of the Atrium and extremely confused. There were people everywhere. But they were all dressed in fashions better suited to Victorian Britain. Every man wore a hat, every woman too, though they were mostly bonnets and caps. Even the children wore flat caps and hand-me-downs that were far too large for them. Not that there were many children. There was also incredible variation in the quality of clothes. Some people were dressed in little more than the ragged remnants of what appeared to be several different and incompatible wardrobes. Others were immaculate, with spotless coats, stiff white shirts, silk cravats, shining waistcoats and gleaming boots. None of the children fell into this latter category. In fact most of them looked like they'd been rolling around in piles of soot. Ellie herself was feeling extremely exposed in her pyjamas.

Even weirder than the people's clothes was what they were all doing. Ellie had expected to find the usual city activities, with shops and restaurants and bars, with people shopping and buying and selling, or just walking around and chatting. But there was none of that. There was tremendous hustle and bustle with people going in and out of buildings and carrying boxes and pushing little carts around, swapping loads and exchanging crates and bags and chests and barrels. There were carriages drawn by horselike animals, but one look at them told Ellie that they certainly weren't living animals. They had no hooves, but three distinct toes on each foot, no manes, glittering ruby eyes and their skin had the sheen of metal rather than hair. Definitely not horses. More like something out of a horror film.

Everything that was being moved around and exchanged had something to do with paper, or was related to writing in some way. There were men carrying piles of paper, their chins pressed down on the top sheets to make sure they didn't blow away. Some had coats pockets stuffed with rolls of parchments, with wax seals hanging off them. There were people pushing carts loaded with stone tablets that had cuneiform writing etched onto them. There were women exchanging leather document cases. Girls running with string bags full of envelopes and loose papers. Boys struggling with small barrels marked SECOND-BEST AZURE-BLUE INK.

Ellie wondered through a market place full of street stalls, but every stall was the same, selling quills and small knives for cutting them, and half plucked geese were running around everyone's legs. A line of men in leather aprons passed carrying bundles of papyrus reeds. Four women were struggling with a huge sheet of beaten gold that had strange symbols hammered into it. With all the hurly-burly of papers and books being transported in every direction, there was also a high level of disorganisation wherever Ellie went. It seemed that a lot of people didn't know what they were doing and were doing it simply because they were afraid of not doing something. Everyone was busy, always with paper, or clay tables, or pens, or ink, or chisels. Ellie didn't see a single person just standing around or sitting or chatting to friends.

The disorganisation was reflected in many of the discussions Ellie overheard, which were often arguments. She heard one woman refusing to sign for forty-six assorted descriptions of calfskin, and another hotly disputing that she was responsible for the Aaah! to Aaar volume of the Loose-Leaf Registry of Lesser Creations. A crowd of men and women at the door of one building were arguing with a very tall man in a blue uniform coat who stood in the doorway and wouldn't let them in as he read from a scroll in his hand about some sort of failure to renew a licence. Another crowd was picking up the pieces of a huge stone tablet which appeared to have toppled out of the open window of a nearby building. Two other men were walking away from a pile of fallen paper, loudly disclaiming any responsibility for it.

Every building seemed to be an office of some kind. There wasn't a single café, pub or supermarket in sight. Not that Ellie was hungry, she just wanted to see something normal. If this was heaven, it wasn't at all how she had imagined it would be. The entire city seemed to be a cooperation rather than a place where people actually lived. All the buildings had bronze plaques next to their doors, but almost all were covered in verdigris so Ellie couldn't read what they said. The few that were bright and polished made no sense to her. She saw signs that read – SUB-BRANCH SECOND DIRECTORATE OF THIRD DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR RATIOCINATION AND CROSS-CHECKING – LOWER ATRIUM OFFICE.

Another aspect of the chaos was that everyone ignored Ellie, which she found odd. She was dressed completely differently to everyone else and she was standing around looking lost and confused. At home, somebody would have stopped to ask her if she was alright. Wait, on second thought, they probably wouldn't. A grown woman walking down the street in her pyjamas wasn't such a curious sight. But there was no way she'd be able to find this Will person just by wondering around so she decided to suck up her nerves and ask somebody. However, the first person she approached wasn't much help. She chose a woman who looked less busy than the rest, but the moment she went up to her and said, 'excuse me', she jumped into the air, pulled a sheaf of parchment from her sleeve an held it close to her face, reading aloud so rapidly that Ellie couldn't understand a word.

The next person she tried was a man walking down the street with a basket of ink bottles. She fell in step with him and said 'excuse me' again.

"It's not my fault!" the man wailed. "The Lower Supernumerary Third Archive deposit hatch is shut and there hasn't been an Archivist of duty for these past thousand years! Tell that to your superior!"

"I just wanted to ask if you've seen someone!" Ellie said weakly.

But the man put on a burst of speed and she soon lost sight of him in the crowd. His passage provoked a storm of complaints, and soon the whole street was strewn with papers and people banging their heads together trying to pick them up, and others falling over at least a thousand pencils that had rolled out of an overturned tub. Ellie picked her way through these and went to sit on the top step of the nearest building, putting her chin in her hands and sighing. This was starting to feel hopeless. She couldn't go home without first talking to the Will, and she didn't even know if they were a man or a woman! Let alone their proper name. And she couldn't exactly go and find a police station, because it sounded like whoever was in charge was responsible for kidnapping her in the first place!

If this was a dream, it was very confusing and Ellie very much wanted to wake up. If this was the afterlife, she was irritated that it was disorganised.

At that moment there was sudden increase in the level of noise on the street. The angry shouts and arguments had changed tone. There were cries of alarm and genuine fear. Instead of milling around, the crowd parted and fled in opposite directions. Many of them were shouting "Help!" and "Nithlings!" Ellie got slowly to her feet so she could see what was happening. The street had completely cleared in a matter of seconds. A few sheets of paper drifted across the cobbles and an abandoned ox-skin flapped in the breeze. Ellie could see no reason for the sudden panic, but she could smell something. Something harsh and corrosive, like sulphur.

Then she saw cracks in the street slowly spreading and groaning open and a thin mist of dark vapour was leaking out of them, spraying up as though oil had been trapped beneath the cobbles. A whistle sounded in the distance, sharp and shrill, and it was answered by others from many other directions. The vapour plumes grew until they were six or seven feet high, then the black mists began to solidify into semi-human shapes. Misshapen men and women formed out of the mist, creatures with their faces on backwards, double-jointed limbs and patches of scales on their skin. Imperfect copies of the clothing worn by the paper-shufflers of the city formed upon them too – coats with sleeves missing, hats without brims, trousers where one leg was three feet longer than the other and dragged on the floor.

The plume Ellie had spotted first was also the first to be fully formed. It became a sticklike sort of man-thing with rubbery arms that hung down past its knees. It had one red-rimmed eye in the centre of its forehead and it wore a single garment rather like a blue straightjacket. Ellie stared at it in horror and the thing stared back. She realised too late that she should have run when everyone else did. She turned and threw herself at the door of the building, yanking on the handle but it wouldn't budge either way. She hammered on the door with both fists.

"Let me in! Please let me iiiiiin!" she bellowed at the top of her voice.

But no answer came from within and she turned around, flattening herself against the door and staring the creatures now shuffling towards her. Her heart was hammering against her ribs. She was completely surrounded by the creatures and as the closest mounted the first step, she shouted at it, stupidly,

"Stay away! You get back now!"

She pointed at it for good measure, and something rather strange happened, though compared to everything else that had happened it wasn't really that bizarre. Her hand began to glow with a golden light and her eyes started to feel weirdly hot. The creatures all stopped, hissing like lizards and clawing at the light. The closest looked around at its companions and opened it mouth to speak in a snarling, guttural voice.

"_Day!_" it grated. "_Day! There is a Day here!_"

Ellie didn't know what it meant by this but she didn't have time to ponder it. Something hard hit the top of her head painfully and she swore, rubbing the spot with her non-glowing hand. She glanced around and saw a rope ladder with wooden rungs had been flung down and was dangling next to her.

"Hey! Idiot! Up here!"

Ellie looked up and saw a small, grubby face looking down at her over the gutter of the roof, several floors up. Fear was a powerful drug, for, even though she had never been much of an athlete, Ellie somehow managed to scramble up the rope ladder with remarkable speed. When she reached the roof she dragged herself over the lip with all the grace of a beached whale, but at least she was safe. She lifted her head to take a look at her saviour and found her to be a child, no older than twelve or so.

"Come on, stupid, don't just lie there! Grab a tile and chuck it! Nithlings can climb you know," said the girl. She threw the piece of brick in her hand and a screech from below indicated that she had hit her target.

Ellie hauled herself onto her knees and looked cautiously over the gutter. She was horrified to see three of the monsters scaling the walls like spiders and one had even grabbed the rope ladder. The little girl yanked a knife out of her belt and hurried to cut the ropes. As she did that, Ellie caught up a broken roof tile and threw with all her might. She missed, spectacularly, but in her panic she just kept hurling. The rope ladder dropped away and the monster clinging to it fell nearly three stories and landed with a horrible crunch on the ground.

Between them, Ellie and the girl managed to throw enough bricks to dislodge the other two monsters from the wall and no others climbed up.

"There," the girl sighed with a satisfied nod. "The Commissionaires can take care of the rest."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**The Atrium **

Ellie took another look at the girl and noted the strange assortment of clothes she wore. A battered and crushed top hat, a coat several times too large, mostly dark blue but with patches of black, knee-length breeches striped in several shades of grey and faded stockings that ended in one ankle high, and one shin high boot.

"Thank you," said Ellie gratefully. "I'd have been toast if you hadn't showed up. I'm Ellie."

"Suzy Turquoise Blue," said the girl, and she offered her hand rather formally. Ellie shook it as the girl looked her up and down. "So, you're a human are you? Never met a grown-up human before. Thought you'd be taller somehow. The Will sent me to fetch you and a good thing too! Been here all of five minutes and you get ambushed by bloody Nithlings!"

"The Will sent you?" Ellie asked excitedly. "Brilliant! I need to talk to him – or her – the Lieutenant Keeper wouldn't let me back through until I did."

Before she could ask where the Will was, a commotion on the street below drew their attention. The piercing whistles Ellie had heard earlier had grown louder and now she could see what was causing the noise. Two dozen people in blue over-coats and tall blue hats and flooded into the square and were dispatching the monsters – Nithlings, as Suzy had named them – with pikes and swords. Ellie watched as one cut down two Nithlings with practiced efficiency but then they turned so she could see their face. It was metal, with dents where the eyes ought to be and a grill over the mouth like an old fashioned radio. As they moved, puffs of steam emanated from the joins.

"Wait, they're robots?" Ellie asked with a frown.

"Automatons," Suzy explained. "Those are the Commissionaires, they're like the police. The Sergeants are Denizens though so you have to watch out for them. See? The ones with the gold frills on their shoulders."

She pointed to a couple of Commissionaires who did indeed had golden epaulettes on their shoulders and even at this distance, Ellie could see they were normal people. They were directing the automatons to clear the bodies of the Nithlings which smoked ominously. New movement caught Ellie's eye and she focused on an individual who had just arrived on the scene.

He was a tall, handsome man with white blond hair tied back in a neat pony-tail. Ellie could tell just from the way he walked, a self-important strut, that he was probably a bit of a tosser. He wore a bottle green tail coat over a snowy shirt, with a dark gold waistcoat and a crimson neck-tie. His glossy brown boots clacked on the cobbles. He stopped just short of one of the smoking cracks in the street and drew a sword from his belt. Ellie gave a small gasp as the blade ignited and the man began passing it over the cracks, closing them with some sort of magic.

"What's Mr Darcy over there up to?" she asked, nodding at the man and Suzy gave a strangle cry.

"Shit a brick! That's Monday's Noon, if he gets his hands on you you'll be done for!"

The man, Monday's Noon, suddenly whirled around and looked intently up at the roof. Suzy grabbed Ellie by the arm and yanked her roughly down and out of sight.

"Come on!" she hissed, crawling along the roof. "Stay low! We've got to scarper!"

"Monday's Noon?" Ellie muttered, scooching along on all-fours after Suzy. "Does he work for Mister Monday? That woman who grabbed me in my bedroom said she was sent to get me on Monday's orders. Who is he?"

"He's the top dog isn't he? The ruler of the Lower House."

"But what does he want with me?" Ellie panted. She was a lot bigger than Suzy and she was having trouble keeping up with her.

"I dunno. The Will just found me this morning and said I had to find a human woman in the Atrium, and that Monday wanted her for some reason."

"And we're going to meet the Will right now are we?"

Suzy didn't answer that because a tile had just slipped under her foot and she swore colourfully. They were now far enough away from Monday's Noon and the Commissionaires that Suzy felt safe to start scampering up the roof to the peek. It was steep, but the tiles were rough and it wasn't too difficult to scale. At the ridge of the roof they came across wooden planks and metal struts to hold them in place. It looked like someone had attempted to repair a collapsed section of the roof, but the building site had the feeling of something long abandoned. Suzy picked her way nimbly along the planks, holding her arms aloft for balance.

When they reached the end of the roof Ellie saw a metal slide running down to the street below, obviously old rubbish shoot. Suzy sat down on the lip and was about to push herself down when Ellie grabbed her arm.

"Whoa hold on a sec kid," she said sternly. "Are you sure that's safe? It could break under your weight!"

Suzy gave her an exasperated look.

"You really are a grown-up aren't you? It won't break, I've done this loads of times. Now come on!"

She shook Ellie off and slid down the shoot. It rattled and groaned ominously but Suzy made it to the ground where she leapt free and landed like a trapeze artist finished an act. Ellie grumbled under her breath and reluctantly followed suit. The shaking was even worse as she slid down at a frightening speed and she winced as the rivets and joints of the shoot banged her on the tail bone. She landed on unsteady feet but managed to stay upright.

"There now, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Suzy asked cheerfully, tugging on Ellie's wrist so she'd follow her down the narrow alley between two buildings.

"Where are we going exactly?" Ellie asked, weary of puddles of dirty water everywhere. Her feet were filthy and freezing after walking around for hours barefoot.

"Somewhere private where you can talk to the Will. It said it was going to explain stuff to you."

It? Ellie thought dubiously. Not he? Or she?

They'd nearly made it to the end of the alley when they ran into trouble again. A patrol of Commissionaires clanked past in the street they were aiming for and Suzy threw out an arm to bring Ellie to a halt.

"Oh bloody Nora, they're sweeping the area. They must be desperate to nab you. Get in here! We'll have to hide until they give up. No way we're getting through with so many floating around."

Suzy flattened herself against the wall and Ellie followed suit. There was a mud stained door with a rusty handle that Suzy worried at for about a minute before easing open. She wriggled through the narrow gap and Ellie just managed to squeeze after her, but not without scraping her elbows. She drew her lips back from her teeth in a silent hiss of pain and practically fell out the other side. They were now in a short, gloomy corridor that was in near pitch darkness, with a creaking wooden staircase directly in front of the door.

The two of them crawled up this whilst outside, Ellie heard the sounds of Commissionaires drawing closer. At the top of the stairs was another corridor, just as narrow but longer and better lit with closed doors at regular intervals on both sides. Suzy went over the nearest door on the left and pressed her ear to it.

"Don't think there's anyone inside," she muttered and she tried the knob but it wouldn't turn. "Bugger, hold on this'll only take a jiffy."

She crouched down by the key hole and drew a number of small pins and picks from an inside pocket of her coat. Before she could insert them into the lock they heard a thud against the rusted door downstairs.

"Forget hiding, we have to leg it!" said Ellie urgently, pulling Suzy onto her feet and starting away down the corridor. Suzy grabbed her tightly around the wrist.

"No," she growled. "We must hide."

Ellie started in shock, for the voice that had issued from Suzy's mouth was definitely not hers. It was deep and gravely, more male than female, a frightening glassy sheen had come over Suzy's eyes as if she were in some sort of trance.

"Suzy?" Ellie asked hesitantly and the girl shook her head, still looking dazedly off into the middle-distance.

"No, I am the Will. Eleanor, listen carefully. You may not yet have the First Key, but you have some power of your own by virtue of being the Rightful Heir. Place your hand on the door knob and command it to unlock."

Ellie just stared at Suzy and did not obey the thing possessing her. Suzy – or rather – the Will, growling impatiently and yanked Ellie's hand over the handle.

"Do it! Now!"

"I – uh – I command this door to unlock?" Ellie said, thoroughly unnerved.

To her astonishment her hand began to glow again, just as it had when she shouted at the Nithlings, and the lock clicked open softly. There came another almighty bang downstairs and a crashing sound that told them the Commissionaires were in the building. Ellie and Suzy dashed into the room and closed the door quickly but softly behind them.

"Tell it to lock itself again!" the Will hissed and this time, Ellie did as she was told.

The lock clicked and she backed away from the door, looking around the room for somewhere further to hide. They were in some sort of office. There were low wide desks of polished wood with green leather tops, all strewn with papers. There were bookcases laden with more papers as well as books. Gas lamps burned in each corner and under one of these lights, Ellie saw her first sign of food at all in this strange city, a bronze water urn, a silver tea pot and several china cups, as well as a plate of biscuits.

The door knob rattled and Ellie's attention snapped back to it. Heart pounding, she grabbed Suzy's hand and tip-toe ran with her around one of the desks where they ducked down. It was one of those grand old desks with a panel at the front to hide the users legs, leaving a tiny gap for the girls to crawl into. It was a tight squeeze but Ellie managed to fold herself awkwardly into the space, with Suzy's rapid breathing in her ear.

"Locked, Sergeant!" called a grating, metallic voice from the corridor outside and they heard the Commissionaire clank away and try all the other doors on the corridor.

"We'll stay in here until they're gone for sure," Suzy muttered, now in her normal voice. Ellie turned her head a fraction to frown at her.

"Are you ok?" she whispered. "Your voice – what was that?"

"That's the Will," Suzy explained. "When it found me it jumped down me gob and wouldn't get out until I went and found you. Said it needed a body to hide in because Mister Monday is after it, too. Now hush up, they're still out there."

They listened to the Commissionaires crashing around the building and eventually the noise began to fade. Ellie was just about to crawl out from under the table, thinking they were gone, when the door crashed open and she bit down on the scream that bubbled up in her throat. She held Suzy tightly and the two of them hardly dared to breath as someone strode into the room.

"Damn them, there's nobody here," said a voice, a man. He sounded severely displeased. "Probably slithered away into the back alleys. Sergeant!"

"Yes sir?" said another voice.

"Search the Atrium from top to bottom! I want that human found."

The two sets of footsteps retreated but only when there had been silence for well over five minutes did Ellie extract herself from the desk and peer tentatively over the top. The office was deserted, but the door was no hanging off it's hinges from the force of the kick which had opened it.

"That was close – I thought – argh!" Suzy made a strangled noise and clutched at her throat.

Ellie started forward in alarm but the girl held up a finger, gave a few hacking coughs, and then spat on the desktop. Ellie pulled a disgusted face but then saw that a tiny, emerald green frog had landed with a faint plop on the table.

"There now, that's better," said Suzy with satisfaction. She wondered over to the tea pot in the corner and poured herself a generous amount. After swirling the tea around her mouth and gargling she swallowed and said, "Never having that thing in me throat ever again! Nasty taste it's got, like ink!"

"What the hell is that?!" Ellie cried, staring at the frog which turned around, it's webbed little feet sticking slightly to the wood, and fixed her with an unnerving glare.

"I am the First Part of the Will, and I am very pleased to meet you Miss Green."

Instead of answering the frog, Ellie simply continued to stare at it, wide-eyed. Eventually she dropped into the nearest chair and buried her head in her hands.

"Ok – the frog just spoke to me," she said dully, running her fingers through her hair. "I don't like this dream. I want to wake up now please."

She wasn't sure why this, of all the strange and terrifying things to happen to her, was the final straw. The Will spoke again.

"What are you talking about, girl? This is no dream."

"Oh come on, it has to be!" Ellie snapped, her head jerking up so she could glare at the Will. "This is completely mad! I've clearly just been over working myself and this is my brain's way of telling me to take a break."

Suzy put down her teacup and came over to stand by Ellie's chair. Then she pinched her, hard, on the neck.

"Ouch! What was that for?!" Ellie cried, leaping out of the chair and pressing her hand to the spot.

"Well, now you know it's not a dream. So can we just get on with things?" the girl said cheerfully and Ellie scowled, still rubbing her neck. That had felt vicious enough to leave a bruise.

"Ok fine, it's not a dream. But if I'm awake right now then where the hell am I?! What exactly is this place and why am I here?"

"This – I believe – is an abandoned accountant's office," said the Will, glancing around the room. "In the Atrium of the Lower House."

"Yes, I got that much from the Lieutenant Keeper," Ellie snapped. "But what is the Lower House? Cause this whole place seems completely mad to me. Have I been abducted by aliens or is this supposed to be Heaven? Or am I still on Earth?"

"This is not Earth. Nor is it Heaven, for there is no such thing. You are quite certainly alive and conscious at this moment. The House, ah, let me see, how to explain this to a mortal? The House is separate from the Earth, it is another dimension. It was created by the Architect thousands of years ago and populated with Denizens to record all that occurred on Earth. The Lower House is but one part of the House, the place were dead records are catalogued and stored."

The Will said all this in quite a matter-of-fact manner, as if it thought it was being perfectly coherent. Ellie however just shook her head slowly and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Nope, still not helping," she groaned. Suzy went to peer out of one of the windows at the street.

"I can't see any Commissionaires," she said. "I reckon we should skedaddle before they come back. I know! We could go to my place where we can have a proper sit down, maybe some tea which isn't stone cold, and you two can talk about – all this."

She gestured the air around her vaguely and the Will nodded.

"Yes, I agree wholeheartedly. This is hardly the place to be discussing matters of such import."

Ellie didn't have the energy to argue with this plan so she followed Suzy out of the office and down the stairs again, now with a little green frog riding on her shoulder. She just wanted to listen to what the Will had to say so she could go back to the Lieutenant Keeper and get him to let her out. She did however peer dubiously down at the frog.

"Don't crawl into my mouth," she warned it.

It was a long journey through the Atrium, so long in fact that the Dome above was beginning to darken as night gathered. Ellie couldn't believe that she'd been in this mad house for an entire day. Her feet were aching from cold and her back was hurting from having to duck down so often to avoid detection. The main streets were full of Commissionaires so they had been snaking through the back alleys for the most part, clambering over bins and squeezing through gates. They had been forced to make many detours because Ellie was simply too big to fit through the gaps Suzy showed her.

As the ceiling dimmed it started to rain. At first, Ellie thought there was a drain from the nearest building dripping on her but as she looked up and got a rain drop in the eye from her troubles, she realised it was actually coming from the Dome.

"This place is really stupid!" she grumbled. "Are there sprinklers up there or something?"

"Yeah, and the cloud stations are supposed to run maintenance," Suzy explained. "Only they're rubbish and don't do their jobs properly. Last year we had a month of rain cause some idiot weather boy broke the system! A lot of files got ruined."

"But why bother making it rain indoors?" Ellie asked in confusion. The Will explained.

"The House was built to mimic your Earth, the weather here is merely cosmetic."

They came to the end of an alley and once again Suzy grabbed Ellie by the arm and yanked her down behind a pile of wooden crates. She pointed across the cobbled street to a line of terrace houses with steps leading up to their front doors. They looked more residential than the other buildings Ellie had seen so far in the Atrium and though they may once have been grand, they were now distinctly run down. Many of the windows were smashed or boarded up and one house even looked as if it had been burned out.

"Right," said Suzy in a low voice, and she suddenly looked nervous. "Um, we're not really supposed to bring grown-ups inside, so I'll have to explain to the others. Follow me."

She straightened up and darted across the road, scampering up the steps of the only building without vandalised windows. Ellie followed more cautiously, watching the floor for broken glass. Suzy knocked on the front door in a coded pattern and after a moment or two it was answered from the other side, and they heard a chain being slid back. The door opened and the two girls hurried over the threshold and out of the drizzle. They were now in a narrow hallway with a rickety staircase directly in front of them and a door on their right.

"Suzy! Suzy's back!" a little boy squealed when he spotted them from the top of the stairs.

He and half a dozen others came bounding down them, whilst a couple more burst out of the living room. The hall turned into a mosh pit as every child tried to rush forward but they all stopped dead in their tracks when they saw Ellie

"Now, before you say nothing- " Suzy began with her hands up in a peaceful gesture. But she was cut short by a volley of angry cries.

"Suzy, how could you?! You can't bring denizens here!"

"She'll give us away!"

"Do you want us to go back to the workhouse?"

"Oi! Shut up will you?" Suzy barked over the clamour, which died down, even though the children's faces were still mutinous. "This one ain't denizen, she's human like us.

"Pull the other one!" one boy sneered, looking at Ellie with great distrust.

"You calling me a liar Olly?" Suzy snarled. "She's like us, I swear. Look!"

She pointed to Ellie's elbow and everyone's eyes followed. The skin she had scraped on the door of the office block was still bleeding a little and she grunted when she saw it. Whilst Ellie tried to mop up the cut with the hem of her t-shirt, the children looked at each other in wonder. Suzy drew herself up triumphantly.

"See, her blood's as red as ours. Now make some room, people, and put the kettle on I'm gasping for a cuppa!"

The children dispersed and Suzy ushered Ellie into the living room. There was a fire roaring in the grate and a couple of battered sofas were crammed into the room. The wall paper was peeling and there were bare floorboards under the rugs scattered haphazardly under foot. As Suzy jumped onto one of the chairs and bent over the back, rummaging for something behind it, Ellie felt a tug on her pyjama trousers and she looked down to see a little girl standing there. She couldn't have been much older than five years old, and she was sucking her thumb and looking curiously up at the new comer.

"Are you really a grown up human?" she asked and Ellie nodded, a smile spreading on her face.

"Got 'em!" Suzy called, tugging at something behind the armchair. "I knew we 'ad some spare clothes 'round here somewhere. Can't have you sitting in your wet things, you'll catch your death! Give these a go."

She threw a bundle across the room and Ellie caught them in fumbling hands. There were a couple of off-white shirts, a patched dress, a few pairs of trousers to choose from and various under garments including long-johns and bloomers.

"What was all that about blood?" Ellie asked, crouching down behind one of the sofas so she could change in privacy.

"Denizens have got blue blood. It's only humans what have got red blood," Suzy explained, perching herself on the arm of a chair. One of the boys came in with a tray bearing cups and a steaming tea pot which he set down on a rickety coffee table.

"Ta, Clarence, now clear off, we need this room for proper secret business," said Suzy importantly. The boy stuck his tongue out at her but left the living room, closing the door behind him.

As Ellie threw her wet pyjama top over the back of the sofa she heard a disgruntled cry. The Will extracted itself from the fabric and glared up at Ellie who had popped her head up.

"Oh, sorry!" she gasped, mortified. "I forgot you were there!"

"Please have more care, my lady," the Will snapped, leaping onto the tea tray. "Now if you would kindly get dressed I can answer some of your questions."

Ellie yanked on a pair of brown britches as quickly as possible, as well as a shirt and a faded red waistcoat. She also pulled on a pair of striped socks because her toes were frozen.

Once she was sat down on the sofa facing the fire with a cup of tea, the Will began.

"Now then, it is time to explain why you are here."

It paused for a moment as if it was trying to work out how best to explain it all. Then it placed the tips of its webbed fingers together and fixed the humans with a hard stare.

"Perhaps it is best to begin by explain exactly who I am, and what the House is. Many years ago, before the House or the Earth existed, there was only the Void of Nothing. You have seen Nothing already, the black substance from which the Nithlings sprang."

Ellie nodded, remembering.

"For future reference, never touch Nothing. It is highly corrosive and is one of the few things which can kill a denizen, so to a human like yourself it is deadly. Nithlings are creatures which spontaneously spring from Nothing. They are mere shadows of true life and crumble away after a few hours but they too are highly dangerous. A bite or scratch will fester and kill in a matter of minutes. But before the universe, the Void was all there was. But then life began."

"You mean, like the Big Bang?" Ellie asked, frowning. The frog looked at her, irritated at being interrupted.

"If that is what you humans have taken to calling it, then yes. The Architect came from the Void, she created the world as you know it."

"Is the Architect – God?" Ellie asked, staring at the frog transfixed. The Will now looked seriously annoyed that its story wasn't going smoothly.

"I suppose that is how you humans might define her," it sniffed. "But for millennia she had no physical shape. She was a force of creation, she drove life. Then when humanoid beings started getting ideas about gods and supernatural occurrences, she took shape. All your notions of life and creation were personified in her."

Ellie wanted desperately to ask further questions about this but the Will, perhaps sensing this, ploughed on.

"After a time the Architect created a place for herself out in the Void, a home if you will, and she populated it with denizens to do her bidding. You see you humans are mortal and she found it rather tiresome that you died so quickly. Denizens are much more durable. Things continued in this vain for some time until the Architect noticed that the Void was beginning to encroach on the mortal world. It was like the sea reclaiming the land, eating away a small part each year. She wished to protect her creation and so she devised a plan."

Suzy and Ellie leant forward unconsciously, listening raptly.

"She decided to set her denizens the task of creating records. Each living creature on Earth has a record and the Architect bespelled them so that as long as a record remained safe, then its subject could not be touched by Nothing."

The Will paused in its tale in order to take a sip of tea from the nearest cup, and the humans waited impatiently as it drank. After smacking its lips unnecessarily it went on.

"At first this plan went rather well. The Architect expanded the House so that it had seven domains, each with its own role to play in making and safeguarding records. She appointed seven Days to rule the domains, and gave them the seven Keys of Power. Whoever legally owns a Key rules its corresponding domain. The Lower House for example is ruled by Mister Monday for he holds the First Key."

"Yeah, but he does a piss poor job of it," Suzy snorted unexpectedly. "Everyone knows the Lower House hasn't been run properly in thousands of years!"

"Indeed," the Will agreed. "It all went wrong ten thousand years ago by House time. The Architect wrote a Will, leaving all her property, including the House and its Keys, to a mortal, to be appointed by me. The Trustees, as they now were, were expected to hand over their Keys to that mortal once I had chosen him or her."

"But they didn't?" Ellie guessed and the Will scowled, an ugly look on its green face.

"They betrayed the Architect!" it shouted, making them both jump. "No sooner had she gone away than they tried to destroy me. But they could not, I was made by the Architect after all and even their power was not great enough. So they broke me into seven pieces instead, and each took a piece and hid it away from the world. I have been a prisoner for ten thousand years."

It took a few seconds to fume and Ellie blinked a few times, picking at a chip on the rim of her teacup. When she finally plucked up the courage she asked,

"So, the Architect, is she dead now?"

"She went away," the Will repeated. "I do not know more than that. I only know that I was stopped from fulfilling my purpose. Until a few months ago that is. With the help of a few loyal denizens I was set free so that I could journey to the Upper House. That is Saturday's domain and it is where live records are made. Before I was detected I was able to steal a record and name its subject the Rightful Heir."

The Will looked at Ellie and so did Suzy. Ellie felt her heart sinking.

"No, me?! I'm the Heir?" she said weakly.

"Well, Heiress would be the grammatically correct term," the Will amended. "You may choose your own title of course, once you have made a proper claim."

"Hang on just a second, I'm not making any claim!" Ellie cried. "Why the hell did you chose me?! I'm not special!"

"I know that you are not," said the Will, now looking confused. "There was no time to go through the records and chose somebody better suited. I assure you I would have preferred to choose someone with some experience of command or combat. But time was short and your record was to hand. Now you have been named and there is no way of unnaming you. Now, we should begin making our plans at once. I think the best course of action would be to journey to the –"

"Wait!" Ellie cut across the Will angrily. "I just said I don't want to the stupid Heir! I don't want to be in charge of this mess."

"But you must," said the Will, crossly. "You have been named Heir, you have no choice."

"Why? What's going to happen if I don't do all that stuff?"

"Well, for one thing, you will be in extreme danger. Mister Monday will not tolerate a threat to his rule and he will hunt you down and kill you. Even if you return to Earth he will pursue you, he has dominion over any given Monday."

"What if I just explained to him that I don't want anything to do with this? Then he'll leave me alone."

"Don't be absurd, you foolish girl. One does not simply explain something to a Trustee. He will kill you! Or the other Days will, without a Key of your own you are extremely vulnerable."

Ellie struggled not to lose her temper, feeling that anger would get her no where with this creature.

"Please," she said plaintively to the Will. "I don't want to fight Monday or the others, I just want to go home! I'm not qualified to rule anywhere!"

"Nevertheless, you must," the Will said, stubbornly.

They continued to argue but no matter how sound Ellie's reasoning or how angry she got, the Will simply refused to change its mind. It insisted that it could not name another the Heir and it finally lost patience with her and hopped up onto the mantelpiece to sulk behind the carriage clock. Suzy, who had been watching their fight like a spectator at a tennis match, let the awkward silence hang for a few moments before getting to her feet.

"Well," she said loudly. "I'll take them cups to the kitchen for you. And we should find you some shoes and all."

She gathered up the crockery and carried the tray out of the room. Ellie heard a scuffle on the other side of the door as what sounded like half a dozen children scrambled out of the way.

"In the morning, I should head to Doorstop Hill and go home, I think," Ellie said, to no one in particular, ignoring the Will's angry huff.

Though she tried to make her words sound confident, for her own sake as much as anything else, she was still afraid. This was real, she was beginning to accept that now, no matter how mad it all felt it was certainly happening. What would she do if this Mister Monday did follow her back to Earth? Would he listen to her or simply cut her throat to be rid of her?

When there had been silence in the living room for a while, the Will burst out, apparently unable to contain itself.

"I must say I never thought I would encounter this problem. I was under the impression that humans craved power and authority, but I have apparently chosen a coward to be the Heir."

"Yep, that's me," Ellie replied before she could stop herself. The Will scowled just as Suzy came back in.

"Here you go," she said cheerfully, dumping a pile of shoes and hats at Ellie's feet. "See if there's any in there that'll fit you. And you'll need a hat, everybody wears them round here."

As Ellie started pulling on various loafers and pumps – there was even a pair of clogs – to find something that fit, she asked.

"Where are your parents, Suzy? Why are you all living here on your own?"

Suzy gave her a surprised look.

"Ain't got no parents, none of us do."

"Oh," said Ellie, pausing in lacing up a pair of suede ankle boots. "Oh, I'm so sorry. What happened to them?"

"I dunno," said Suzy with a shrug. "They've probably been dead for years. We Piper's Children aren't supposed to be in the House. We're humans, but we were brought here years and years ago by the Piper. I don't remember it too well, too much washing between the ears."

"You mean you were kidnapped?!" Ellie asked in shock. "Why didn't the people in charge send you home?"

"Humans aren't supposed to know about the House," Suzy explained, sitting herself cross-legged on the carpet with her back to the fire. "So once we were here the Morrow Days had a bit of a problem. 'Course, they soon found out how useful we were for all the odd jobs denizens are too big or too stupid to do. So they put us to work, some of us are ink-fillers, some work as runners for the post office, I heard some have to clear machinery up in some of the other Domains. But I've never been anywhere except the Lower House, and only a dozen floors at that."

"But, doesn't anyone look after you?" Ellie asked, looking around at the children who had started to creep curiously back into the sitting room. It struck her how very decrepit they all looked, like they'd just fallen out of a Dickens novel.

"We can look after ourselves!" one of the boys, Olly, said indignantly. "They try to make us live in the workhouses attached to the factories like the denizens but those places are horrible."

"But how do you get fed? Do you just go out and buy food and cook it all by yourselves?" Ellie pressed. None of the children looked older than twelve or so, and most looked much younger. She couldn't imagine being so independent when she had been that age.

"We don't get much chance to eat, to be honest," Suzy shrugged. "Bit of nicked tea here and there is all we get. Sometimes our bosses give us bread and butter at work to stop us messing up our jobs."

"You're starving?! Why doesn't someone do something?!" Ellie cried.

"You can't starve in the House," Suzy explained. "You don't need to eat or drink or go to the toilet, you can't even get sick. Denizens like to eat and wear charms to make them seem ill because that's fashionable, but that's it. Us humans can feel hungry and if you go too long without eating it makes you faint, but we can never die from it. Only Nothing kills for sure in the House.

Some sort of argument had broken out in the dining room and at the shout of 'fight, fight' Suzy leapt up to go and deal with it. Ellie pulled on a wool flat cap, tucking her hair behind her ears as she did. She normally wore her hair up but of course she'd had no bobbles on her in bed. She put her head on the arm of the sofa, suddenly exhausted from the craziness of the day and all the fresh information that had been loaded onto her.

"This place is completely fucking mental," she muttered.

The Quill Street house was a noisy, messy sort of place. Ellie tried to stay out of the way by remaining on the sofa whilst the children, apparently excited to have a guest, crammed into the living room for the evening and talked loudly over each other. Most of them were engaged in a noisy game of snap that was even tenser than usual because they appeared to be gambling with tiny copper coins. Suzy Blue was the loudest of them all, joking around and getting into an arm wrestling competition with three of the boys. Ellie really wanted to go somewhere quiet but the rest of the house was just as mad.

Finally, at around midnight, the children started yawning and wondering off to bed. A few simply wrapped themselves up in blankets and fell asleep right in front of the fireplace. Suzy brought their guest a large, patched quilt.

"Here," she said. "You can sleep on the sofa and in the morning I'll take you back to Doorstop Hill."

The sofa was just about large enough for Ellie to stretch out. It took a long time for the house to quieten and even longer for all the children in the living room to start snoring softly. Ellie, despite her exhaustion, couldn't sleep. She lay staring into the dying embers of the fire with the blanket wrapped around her, worrying about it all.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

**Turn Coat**

Ellie woke with a frightened start as she heard a great banging on the front door. For a second she looked around the dark living room in confusion, had she fallen asleep on the sofa? Then she heard an authoritative voice call from the street,

"This is Monday's Noon! I demand that you open this door at once, or I will have my men kick it down."

Suzy Blue came rushing in, shooing the frightened children out of the way before dropping to her knees and rolling back the carpet.

"Quick! Quick!" she hissed. "Grab your shoes!"

Ellie followed her order without hesitation and as she yanked on her boots she saw lights bobbing around beyond the threadbare curtains. Suzy grabbed a metal ring nailed to the floor and tugged, revealing a person sized trapdoor. The Will leapt from the mantelpiece and landed on the girl's top hat just as she jumped into the hole and disappeared. There was a great crash on the front door and Ellie scrambled after Suzy, missing the ladder and falling a good six feet. She landed with a thump on what felt like packed dirt. One of the children above them snapped the trap door shut and she heard the carpet being flipped back into place.

They were in a low ceilinged cellar full of wooden crates and barrels. The only light came from the cracks in the floorboards above their heads and Suzy was already struggling to drag one of the crates away from the wall. Ellie quickly finished tying her shoelaces and jammed her cap onto her head before rushing to help.

"Stop, stop! Be quiet!" the Will ordered them and they both froze, hearts pounding and quivering from head to toe.

The sound of boots tramping on the floorboards was ringing in their ears and distant screams and crashes told them that the Commissionaires were searching the entire house. Then it all went quiet apart from a single pair of feet marching into the living room. Ellie lifted her head slowly and squinted through a crack in the ceiling. Through it, she could just make out a shining brown boot with silver buckles and the hem of a bottle green coat.

"No sign of her, sir!" said a voice. "Just children."

The boot turned about before pausing.

"You, boy, are there any adults in this hovel?" snapped a deep, posh voice. They heard Olly reply timorously.

"Adults, mister Noon, sir? Nah, no denizens here. Just us kids."

The boot lurched forward and they heard Olly make a choking sound. Suzy gave an angry yelp and Ellie quickly put a hand over her mouth to stifle the noise.

"I do not appreciate being lied to by filthy Piper's brats. I asked if there were adults in this house, not denizens. An adult human to be precise, a woman. She was spotted earlier today in the company of one of you guttersnipes. Now that I've found your hidey hole I'm going to tear it apart, and if I find that you've been harbouring fugitives, I will have the whole lot of you shipped off to the Far Reaches! Grim Tuesday is always looking for Piper's Children to work in the Pit. Now I ask again, where is the human?"

Neither Olly nor any of the other children said a word and after a few moments, Monday's Noon snorted in disgust.

"Search the entire building! Find them!" he snapped at his men and the crashing continued.

Suzy pushed Ellie's hand away and she redoubled her efforts to move the box. Ellie threw her weight against it and they managed to shift it out of the way. Behind it there was a small hole in the bricks leading to a narrow, damp tunnel. Suzy led the way, crawling along with Ellie following in her wake.

"Will they be ok?" Ellie asked anxiously as they crawled. The banging was receding behind them.

"I reckon so," panted Suzy. "Once the Commissionaires are done wrecking the place they'll get bored and move on. Then the gang will just scatter. They'll never catch us all, they ain't sending me to the Pit!"

"I'm so sorry I brought this on you," said Ellie, feeling horribly guilty.

"Don't matter, the Commissionaires were bound to find us eventually. We've been talking about finding a new den for ages. Ah! Here we are."

They had come to the end of the tunnel where there was a round shaft with a rusty ladder against one side. It was just wide enough for them both to stand, though they were squashed in like sardines. Suzy was peering up, frowning.

"I reckon the manhole cover at the top will be locked and we ain't got time for me to unpick it. Do you think you can unlock it? Like you did that door earlier?"

She looked at Ellie with her head cocked inquiringly and Ellie pulled an uncertain face.

"Oh, I don't know," she sighed. "I don't know how I did it before."

"Simply tell the lock to undo itself," said the Will impatiently. "Go! This is no time to be coy."

Ellie sighed and took to the ladder, still not entirely confident. The rungs were damp and water was dripping down from above, it was likely still raining. Her hands were covered in slime and rust by the time her head bumped against the manhole cover. She reached up and pushed on it, but it was indeed stuck.

"Ok, unlock!" she said as commandingly as she could. At once, her hand glowed phosphorescent green and the manhole was blown clean away.

"Hell yeah!" Ellie crowed. "Did you guys see –"

But she never finished her sentence because a strong hand had just grabbed her by the scruff of her collar and hoisted her out of the hole.

Ellie screamed as she was hoisted bodily into the air but her shirt rode up and constricted her throat. Choking, Ellie dangled there, wriggling like a worm on a hook but unable to free herself. A voice in her ear hissed,

"Ah, so here you are. I thought that tunnel would lead to here. Is there anyone else with you?"

Ellie craned her neck and saw the handsome, blond man leering down at her. This close to, she saw that his tongue was silver. For some reason she felt like telling him the truth but she managed to shake her head.

"Good, now come along."

He set her back on her feet and flung her carelessly away from himself. She crashed right into two Commissionaires who were waiting nearby and each grabbed one of her arms and lifted her again off the ground, marching mechanically after Monday's Noon as he strode down the narrow alley. The alley ended in a dead end but even as they approached the brick wall in front of them opened to reveal that it was in fact a lift. The Commissionaires dumped Ellie on the floor at Noon's feet and she stayed there, kneeling in a puddle of rainwater because she was too scared to move. There was no sign of Suzy or the Will and she prayed that they would stay hidden.

A group of people walked out of the lift into the pouring rain. Or rather, three people walked out, the fourth was being wheeled in a wicker bath chair by an elderly man dressed like a butler. The occupant of the chair was a tired looking man with even lighter hair than Noon's. He looked ill, pale and sickly.

"Mister Monday," Noon said to the man in the bath chair, bowing respectfully. "The human, Eleanor Green."

Mister Monday, who was far less impressive in person than Ellie had imagined him to be, looking down at her and yawned.

"Oh, is that it?" he asked boredly. "She hardly seems worth all this trouble. Well, get on with it! Someone dispose of her."

"Wait!" Ellie shrieked even as Noon caught a handful of her hair and yanked her head back to bare her throat. "You've made a mistake! I don't want to be the Heir! I promise I won't try and take anything from you! I just want to go home!"

None of the watchers paid her the slightest bit of attention. Monday's Noon drew his sword and as he brought the blade up to Ellie's neck it ignited with blazing fire.

"Please!" Ellie sobbed. "Please don't! No! STOP!"

As she said this last word she felt her eyes grow hot again and Noon let go of her hair and his sword with a yell of anger and pain. The sword clattered on the cobbles and the fire was extinguished in an instant. Ellie fell forward onto all fours, her heart thudding a mile a minute and her breathing ragged. Noon was stomping around behind her apparently having a tantrum and cursing under his breath.

"Problem, brother?" asked the man behind Mister Monday quietly. Ellie's eyes flickered up to look briefly at the speaker, and then she did a double take. He was wearing a silk top hat now and had dispensed with the dark glasses, but she recognised that deathly pale face. It was the stranger who had followed her off the bus, the one she suspected had delivered the blank letter.

He had a small, amused smile playing on his lips as he watched Noon.

"Shut up!" Noon snapped. "You! Commissionaire, kill the human."

The nearest Commissionaire drew its baton so quickly that Ellie didn't even have time to scream. He tried to bring it down on the top of her head to brain her but instead met some sort of barrier in the air that flashed briefly green. The baton bounced back and smacked the automaton in the face, causing him to fall backwards and not get back up again.

"You stupid girl! Do you have any idea how expensive those things are?!" Noon raged.

The man and the woman standing behind Monday sniggered quietly to themselves before the man spoke up.

"It is as I expected, the human has already been named as the Rightful Heir and so has gained some of her powers. Common denizens cannot kill her, though perhaps one of the Keys would do the job."

They all looked at Mister Monday who began fiddling with something in his lap. Ellie saw that it was a long golden spike, with one rounded end and the other stylishly pointed. It took her a moment to realise that she was looking at a clock hand and that there was some sort of powerful energy coming from it, like a second heartbeat she could feel in her chest.

"I have to do it myself?" Monday asked with a look of distaste on his face. "How bothersome. Fine, bring it closer so I can finish the job."

Monday's Noon bent down to grab Ellie's shirt again but before he could, the man in black spoke again.

"Actually, my lord, if I may be so bold as to propose an alternative course of action? The human need not be killed – yet."

"What do you mean, Dusk?" Monday asked, rubbing his eyes as if all this talk was thoroughly exhausting. "I don't want an Heir running around, the First Key is mine and so is the Lower House, I won't have a rival. And if Saturday finds out about this then we're all in trouble."

"We may have a unique opportunity here," said the man, Monday's Dusk, eyeing Ellie shrewdly. "If we keep Miss Green here alive and unharmed, the Will cannot name another Heir in her place. We simply have to keep her locked away somewhere safe and unpleasant whilst we hunt for the Will. Once it is imprisoned again, we can dispose of the Heir."

Everyone in the vicinity looked down at Ellie who had thought it best to remain kneeling on the ground. She didn't say a word to any of this.

"But where is safe from the interference of the Will?" asked the woman on Monday's right. She was quite beautiful, with auburn curls and a spray of freckled across her cheeks. This clashed however with the pink dress she wore. "Nowhere I know of."

"There is one place the Will cannot, or dare not, go," said Dusk, and his voice had grown quieter. "The Deep Coal Cellar. The Old One will not suffer the Will's presence."

From the frisson that ran around the group and the silence that followed Dusk's words, Ellie deduced that the Deep Coal Cellar was not the sort of place one would want to be sent. The red-haired woman gave a shudder and said nervously,

"The Old One? We should not meddle with him."

"He is chained, and he has never interfered with the workers there," Dusk reminded them. "And all the Seven Keys combined could free him from that chain."

There was another pause as they all examined then came to accept this plan. Mister Monday had fallen asleep as they were talking so he was nudged awake and his opinion was solicited.

"Delays! Difficulties!" he complained, fixing Ellie with a bleary glare. "But I see the sense in the idea. Fine, put her down in the cold and the damp. One of you lot can take of it for me, I'm going to take a nap. Sneezer!"

The old servant wheeled his master about and the pair of them disappeared into the lift. Once he was gone Dusk brushed off his coat.

"My Midnight Visitors and I will escort Miss Green to the Coal Cellar."

"They will _not_," Noon scoffed. "You're people have already managed to make a pig's ear of this situation. Dawn and I will see to it. You can go and deal with those Piper's Children back there. They need a good thrashing. I really can't stand humans."

To emphasise this he gave Ellie a sharp kick in the back with sent her flying face first into the cobbles. She whacked her chin and the pain brought tears to her eyes. Noon stepped over her and would have tread on her fingers if she hadn't snatched back her hands.

"Get up girl, I want this done quickly!" he called over his shoulder.

Afraid of what the remaining Commissionaires would do if she didn't comply, Ellie scrambled to her feet, grabbing her cap which had fallen off her head as she did so. After jamming it back on her head she hurried into the lift after Dawn and Noon. The Commissionaires followed her and once they were all inside the doors pinged shut. Now she really did feel like a prisoner. It was a very handsome lift, bigger than any Ellie had ever been in before. It had highly polished wood panelling on the walls and parquetry floor.

There was a brass-railed rotunda in the middle which Dawn and Noon were standing on. Ellie was shoved forward by the Commissionaires until she was standing next to it and she glanced up at the two Times in fear. Noon touched the air in front of him and a speaking tube appeared before him.

"Upper Coal Cellar Entry. Express."

Someone said something on the other side and Noon scowled. For someone so handsome he really could pull a lot of ugly expressions.

"Well reroute it then! I said express."

The lift suddenly lurched and fell, hurling Ellie into a Commissionaire, who remained stock still and at attention. Dawn and Noon were thrown against the railings. Noon yanked the speaking tube back to his mouth and he starting shouting at the unfortunate soul on the other side, spitting profanities. At one point he must have said something so bad that all Ellie heard was a disembodied voice in the air by her ear say,

'_Translation unavailable_.'

"This place is completely insane," she muttered.

Despite Noon's demands, the journey ended up being about twenty minutes, at least according to Noon's pocket watch which he checked frequently. When they arrived at their destination, Dawn stayed on the rotunda whilst Noon strode out of the doors, shoving Ellie before him. The Upper Coal Cellar Entry was depressingly sparse. Just a room the size of a school assembly hall with a somewhat similar floor, only it was stained with coal dust. There were wicker baskets full of coal dotted around the large, circular hole in the floor and the denizens unloading them scuttled back at the sight of the Commissionaires. There was a wooden platform jutting out over the hole and Ellie was prodded towards this. But she took one look at the seemingly bottomless drop and froze stubbornly.

"No, come on, I didn't even do anything!"

"Move. Stop being a pain in the backside," Noon commanded. He grabbed her upper arm and dragged her along the creaking platform. Her heart was now thudding and her feet scraped on the planks as her legs remained locked in place. At the edge of the platform, staring down into the abyss, she was on the verge of hyperventilating.

"Now then, you won't be alone down there," Noon informed her. "There are a few coal collators but they won't be speaking to you. And then there is the Old One. If you value your life and your sanity, you will stay away from him."

"H-how will I know him?" Ellie squeaked out.

A bitter smile curled Noon's lip.

"Oh you'll know the Old One when you see him, trust me."

Noon let go of her arm but she was so terrified that she didn't even consider trying to escape. He took a green notebook out of his pocket and tore out a page. He then retrieved a pair of scissors and started snipping at the paper until small pieces were flying everywhere and Ellie had to spit a few off her lips. When he was finished he was holding a pair off rough paper wings. He gave Ellie a cruel smile.

"Well, enjoy your time down there. I assure you it's cold, dark and damp."

He put his hand on her back between her shoulder blades and pushed hard. Ellie gave a shriek as she toppled off the platform and fell for several feet into the hole until suddenly she slowed with a bone shaking jerk. He had somehow attached the paper wings to her back and even now she could feel them fusing with her skin. It wasn't painful, but extremely unpleasant. The wings had expanded like a parachute and had begun flapping just enough to slow her fall. She could hear Noon laughing above her head.

"Wanker," she hissed.

"Yes, he can be sometimes," said a soft voice near her in the darkness. Ellie gave a yelp and lashed out instinctively but her fist met only air.

"Who's that?" she squeaked.

There was the sound of a striking match and a tiny flame flared just a couple of feet from Ellie's face. It shed enough light to illuminate another winged figure, matching her decent perfectly. A man dressed entirely in black with a deathly pale face. Monday's Dusk smiled reassuringly at her.

"What do you want?" Ellie asked in a tiny voice. She really wasn't coming off well in all this but it was hard to be anything but utterly terrified.

"There's no need for you to be afraid of me my dear, I am here to help you. Did the Will not tell you who set it free?" Dusk asked kindly.

"You?" Ellie said in confusion. She stared at Dusk for a moment, trying to catch a lie in his eyes. "I saw you back home, you were following me. You put that blank letter through the door didn't you?"

"I did indeed," Dusk confirmed with a grave nod. "It was not truly blank, but as a human you could not see the writing upon the parchment. The moment you touched it you were officially named the Heir. Surprisingly simple for something so important."

"But, you're one of Monday's lot. You're like his right hand man," said Ellie, shaking her head in confusion.

"Alas, Noon stands to the master's right, Dawn to his left. I stand behind in the shadows. However sometimes one must stand partly in darkness to truly see the light. You may have noticed that the Lower House is in a terribly state."

Ellie nodded slowly. She wasn't really sure what to do with her hands and feet and so had drawn them up close to her body until she was crouching in mid-air. Dusk on the other hand looked to be standing perfectly straight, heedless of the emptiness beneath his feet. There was a great sadness behind his smile.

"It was not always like this," he explained. "Once, Mister Monday was full of life and vigour, he worked hard to maintain the Lower House. But a sickness came upon him after a time, a great lethargy that seeped from him through the rest of the domain until the records are in disarray and Nithlings run amok. I concluded that all our woes began with the breaking of the Will, that the Sloth was somehow the Architects revenge for disobeying her. I resolved to free the First Part of the Will and help it select an Heir. It was I who stole your record from the Upper House, I held it in my own hands."

Ellie didn't know if she believed him or not. If Dusk truly had been the one to free the Will, then why hadn't it said so in the first place?

"Do you know where the Will is now?" she asked after a while. She really wanted to ask if he knew Suzy's whereabouts, but she thought it might be stupid to reveal that she had a companion to someone like Dusk. As it happened, Dusk seemed to read her mind.

"The Will and Suzy Turquoise Blue emerged from the tunnel a few minutes after you had been taken away by Noon. I believe that the Will had to restrain your young friend to stop her from revealing herself when you were captured. I told them where you were being taken and the Will shall undoubtedly send Suzy after you. You should wait for her in the Coal Cellar."

"Won't the Will come too?"

"No, as you heard before, the Will is afraid of the Old One. It won't dare venture into his domain, even if he is chained."

"Why?"

"The Old One has a great hatred for the Architect, for she was the one who chained him in the first place. The Will is an extension of the Architect. However, you should seek him out. He will like you, he had a great fondness for humans once upon a time and he will help you. Ask him about the Improbable Stair."

There was a pause whilst Ellie eyed Dusk suspiciously. This all sounded extremely dodgy to her.

"Why should I trust you?" she asked, trying to inject some boldness into her voice. Dusk flew closer until his face was a few inches from Ellie's and his ebony wings brushed against her white ones with every forward stroke.

"Why trust anyone?" he said very quietly. "The Will wants its way, Monday wants his, the Morrow Days want theirs. Be wary of them all, none of them care about your wellbeing. Be cautious Eleanor!"

He blew out his match and the area was plunged into darkness. Ellie heard Dusk's wings beat harder and a rush of air against her skin, and then he was gone, and she was quite alone in the coal shaft. She had a long time to think about Dusk's warning, as the shaft was deeper than she had imagined. She had no control over her wings for they flapped of their own accord and kept her falling at a slow, steady pace. After a while the motion started to make her sleepy and her fear began to ebb. It was exhausting being terrified all the time.

Ellie only had a brief warning when the shaft came to an end. Her wings redoubled their efforts until she was brought to a complete stop, then they detached themselves and she was dumped down the last three feet or so. She landed on hard wet stone with a loud splash, drenching her from head to toe and leaving her spluttering. A moment later, two pieces of paper fell on her head and she shook them off. The puddle she was kneeling it was a couple of inches deep but all else was darkness. There's wasn't a spec of light to be seen.

After getting cautiously to her feet Ellie realised how cold it was down here. She flexed her fingers then rubbed them together to chase away to chill.

"Um, light, please," she said.

Her voice echoed loudly in the empty space and she blinked when her hands began to glow with eerie green light. She hadn't wanted to do it when she was falling, preferring not to know how high she was. She could now see that the puddle she was standing in was one of many, the light glistened off their surfaces. The ground between the puddles was grimy with damp coal dust. And there were piles of coal everywhere, hundreds and hundreds of them, in perfectly neat pyramids that almost touched the low, vaulted ceiling. There was no one else to be seen, even though Noon had said there were denizens working down here. And there was no sign of this Old One either.

Now that she was here, Ellie wasn't sure what to do. Common sense told her that she ought to stay near the coal shaft because that was where Suzy was sure to appear if she came looking for her. But Dusk had advised her to seek out the Old One and ask for his help. After standing there for a minute or so, getting progressively colder, Ellie decided to look around the immediate vicinity. There had to be some dry ground somewhere so she could sit down and wait.

As she walked, she counted the pyramids so she wouldn't get too lost. There a creeping, prickling sensation on the back of her neck and she kept glancing over her shoulder nervously. She just couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched. She had been walking in vaguely the same direction for some time and had come up to pyramid 267 when she finally found something different. It looked to be a camp of some sorts, set on some slightly higher, dryer ground among the pyramids. There was an old fashioned tent with kaki canvas a thick string guide-lines, the sort of thing Scott of the Antarctic might have used. In front of it was a threadbare armchair, a small wooden trunk and a weird copper urn, about three feet tall, with lot of taps, spigots and little drawers.

There was nobody to be seen, even though the urn was glowing with heat and Ellie inched closer to it and held out her hands.

"Ho! Stop! Unhand my coals, you ruffian!" cried an angry voice to Ellie's right. She jumped in shock and stumbled backwards, tripping spectacularly over the wooden chest. She landed spreadeagled on the floor and after recovering herself slightly she lifted her head to see an angry little man brandishing a broom at her. "Those are my coals, villain!"

He raised the broom as if he was about to wallop her but then his eyes fixed on her hands which were still glowing green. He froze in mid-strike and his expression grew horrified.

"Oh, not – not you ma'am, I am referring to someone else. Why, there he goes now!"

He pointed randomly into the darkness but when Ellie turned her head to look there was of course no one there. By the time she looked back the man had lowered the broom and seemed to be inching away.

"I'll just get back to work then ma'am," he laughed nervously.

Ellie tried to get up but her leg was still dangling over the chest and it proved difficult.

"Help, please," she puffed, struggling to lift it free. The little man bustled forward and held out the broom for her to grab. Once she was on her feet again she thanked him.

"Not at all ma'am. I am so sorry I startled you. I suppose you're here to inspect us," he said ruefully, eyeing her glowing hands again.

"Yes," Ellie said quickly, straightening her waistcoat and trying to stand in a more authoritative way. "Yes, I am. I'm, uh, Green. Miss Green."

'Miss Green' sounded more impressive that 'Ellie' and the little fellow bowed to her.

"Pravuil ma'am, Coal Collator Tenth Grade, 196,582,890 in precedence. Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Yes please, do you know what time it is?"

"Oh I have no idea ma'am. We normally just work until we get tired then we go to sleep. I, uh, I know that is highly irregular. Old Albert had a pocket watch that still worked but he got promoted a couple of decades ago so now no one's really sure of the time. I supposed you could look at the Old One's clock but I wouldn't recommend it ma'am. He gets very put out when we go too near him."

"Right, uh, and where would I find him? I'm here to inspect him really," Ellie bluffed. The moment she said it she wished she hadn't because Pravuil gave her a strange look.

"You – you must be really high up then," he said carefully.

"That's confidential I'm afraid." God, she'd never been very good at bullshitting convincingly. "I really need to know where the Old One is."

"Well, alright, I'll take you a little way and point you in the right direction. If you're still alive afterwards, you're welcome to come back to my camp for a cup of tea."

"Oh, well thank you," said Ellie with an uncertain smile.

Pravuil walked with her for about five minutes before pointing into the darkness. He said he wasn't sure how far away the Old One was, but that it didn't take more than a day or so to walk from the coal shaft to the far side of the cellar. Ellie really hoped the Old One wasn't that far away as she began her journey. She kept track of her movements with her counting but that became difficult after a while because the coal pyramids started to thin out. They weren't as neat anymore, and eventually they disappeared altogether. The floor was dryer and cleaner here and Ellie sensed that she was walking up a very gentle incline.

The light of her hands had begun to dim as well and she about to summon it once again when she finally saw something in the distance. It was another light, also green, and her heart began to thud a little faster. Now that she was here she wasn't sure she wanted to meet this Old One. Dusk had assured her he wouldn't hurt her, but what did he know?

She crept forward slowly until she could see what was in front of her clearly. She saw a huge raised, circular platform. It only took a second for her to realise that she was looking at a giant clock, because there were metal roman numerals set upright at intervals around the edge, and two long pieces of metal attached to the spike in the middle. And yes, there was a man. He was sitting next to the number eight, his head on his knees and his eyes closed. From the way he breathed, Ellie guessed he must be asleep. She walked very slowly forward and stopped next to the number five, not wanted to get too close.

The Old One frightened her. He was enormous, eight or nine feet tall by the look of him yet perfectly proportioned for his size. He looked like a barbarian hero of old, with huge muscles, and salt and pepper stubble around his head and chin. He did look very old, ancient, with extremely pale skin. He was naked save for a loincloth, and his wrists and ankles were manacled. Ellie's eyes followed the glowing chains to where they attached to the minute and hour hands, which were currently pointing to ten minutes to nine. There was some sort of complicated pulley and gear system that she couldn't understand, that ran along the lengths of the clock hands to the centre. As she watched, the minute hand moved a little, and the chain clinked and shuddered a couple of inches along the hands. It appeared that the chains shortened and lengthened in their journey around the clock.

"Um, uh, sir?" Ellie asked in a quavering voice. The giant didn't respond so she raised her voice a little. "Excuse me sir? I'm really sorry to bother you, sir?"

Still no response. Ellie glanced around then sucked up the courage to step up onto the clock. The moment she did this the Old One's eyes snapped open and moving with a speed at odds with his apparent age his arm shot out and his fingers wrapped around her neck.

"That was foolish, child," he said quietly.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

**Clockwork**

The Old One wasn't exactly choking Ellie because his hand was so big it fit easily around her neck without him needing to squeeze. But she was trapped and her hands flew instinctively to grip his forearm though the idea that she could break his hold was ludicrous. He had very dark eyes, so dark that the iris was almost indiscernible from the pupil and they were glaring at Ellie frighteningly.

"I thought you denizens had learned to stay away by now," he growled menacingly. "It's been a few millennia since I've needed to rip one of you limb from limb."

"I'm not a denizen!" Ellie gasped, her fingers now trying to prize his hand open but to no avail. "I'm a normal person! A human, I mean!"

There was a pause, then the Old One pulled her closer until his face was barely an inch from his. She could feel his breath on her skin as he peered intently into her eyes. Mild surprise blossomed across his face and he slowly released her.

"Well now, this is interesting. I haven't seen one of your kind in a very long time. The language you speak is unfamiliar."

"Then – how can you understand me?" Ellie asked, massaging her neck and taking a few steps back.

Now that the Old One was no longer crouched over, she could see that he had a lot more slack on the chains than he had been letting on. But it didn't seem as though he could leave the clock face.

"That is part of the magic of the House," the Old One explained, settling himself cross-legged next to the number eight. "It translates any language in the listener's head. Apart from the Architect's language of course, but that is inimical to mortal ears. Now, sit, I wish to hear how a young human such as yourself became lost in the Lower House."

Ellie didn't want to sit, but the Old One had such a commanding voice that she found herself dropping to her knees. She told him as simply as possibly what had happened, how she had been chosen to be the Architect's Heir, the mix up in the Front Door, and her eventual capture and imprisonment by Mister Monday. The Old One did not interrupt her and when she was finished he simply gazed at her for a while, one elbow resting on his knee and his chin on his fist.

"Um, that's it," Ellie added, lamely.

"And your friend will be arriving shortly to help you escape, is that correct?" the Old One asked.

"Well, she's not really my friend. She's just a kid I met earlier today," Ellie confirmed.

"And Monday's Dusk advised you to seek me out."

"Well yeah, he said you might be able to help me. He told me to ask about something called the impossible stair, or something like that."

"The Improbable Stair," the Old One corrected quietly. He was still staring at her as though he couldn't quite decide what to make of her. Then, quick as a flash, his hand whipped out and grabbed her forearm. Before she could react he drew a small, thin blade from seemingly thin air and sliced open her thumb.

"Ouch! What are you doing?!" she yelped. He ignored her and brought her thumb up to his face so that he could taste the drop of blood that oozed out of the tiny cut. Then he let go of her, a slight frown creasing his forehead.

"You appear to be telling the truth," he said after some consideration. "I can taste her taint in your blood."

"Who's taint?" Ellie asked, clutching her hand to her chest to stem the bleeding, but it had already stopped, it hadn't been a big wound. The Old One's eyes seemed to grow darker and a look of pure hatred crossed his features. Ellie edged away nervously.

"Her taint," he hissed. "The Architect. I'd recognise it anywhere – that snake. It was she who chained me here you know."

"Why?" Ellie asked in a whisper. A bitter smile twisted the Old One's mouth.

"Because I meddled in the affairs of humans. Many, many years ago now mind you. But if one walks among humans long enough, they begin to worship you as a god. And of course, only the Architect could have that privilege."

Curiosity was beginning to overwhelm her fear, and Ellie unconsciously mimicked the Old One's posture by putting her head in her hand.

"So, who are you exactly? You're not a denizen, obviously. Or a human."

"Certainly not," the Old One scoffed. "I am a being similar to the Architect. What did the Will tell you about her?"

"It said she made the universe, sort of, and when humans evolved to believe in Gods she was given a body."

"A simplistic version of events, but not too far from the truth of it," the Old One conceded and Ellie grinned in spite of herself. "But for the sake of clarity, let us not describe the Architect or myself as 'gods'. The correct term is Anthropomorphic Personification. You see, let us take the Architect as an example. She personifies life and creation thereof. Her form is sustained by human belief in her, but if you stopped believing, the things she personifies would not simply cease to exist. We are merely symbols."

"Right…" said Ellie slowly, trying to grasp the concept. "What do you personify?"

The Old One smiled mysteriously at her and did not deign to answer. Instead he asked,

"Are you hungry?"

"Yes!" Ellie cried at once. She was starving even though she had no idea how long she had been in the House. The Old One held up his hands and clapped them twice. There was a rumbling, thunder-like sound and Ellie scrambled backwards as the clock face between them cracked open and a thin black mist curled out. It swirled for a moment before disappearing. Leaving an earthenware jug and platter, which had a steaming loaf of bread on it, some shredded meat, and some bright red berries. The crack in the clock sealed itself and Ellie crawled forward again.

"How did you do that?" she asked, mightily impressed.

"Nothing lies very close to the surface here and I have the power to summon and shape it."

"But I thought Nothing was dangerous?"

"It is to humans and common denizens. But not to one such as myself. Now, drink, eat. I have not dined with a companion in many a year."

The food was excellent, especially the meat which Ellie was informed was wild boar. The berries she puzzled over until the Old One told her they were strawberries, though they didn't look or taste like any strawberries Ellie had ever seen. They spoke about Earth, the Old One seemed strangely interested in Ellie's every day life, where she'd grown up, what she did with her friends, how she lived and so forth. In turn, Ellie asked some of the questions she had wanted to ask the Will, about the House and it's function. The Old One didn't refuse to answer any of them but he did grow irritable when she kept circling back to the Architect so Ellie dropped the subject.

In the middle of all this, the Old One proffered the jug to Ellie and she took it dubiously. The liquid inside was brown and she had to be very careful when she took a gulp because the rim was so wide. She slopped some down her front anyway when she choked and coughed because of the strong taste.

"What is it?" she croaked, handing the jug back.

"Mead, you don't like the taste?"

The Old One seemed not to mind the taste because he drank the entire jug in a few large swallows. Ellie was starting to get very sleepy and she was feeling warm and comfortable after all the food. The idea of going back out into the cold, damp, coal filled cellar was extremely unappealing. According to the clock it was half past ten in the morning but she had only had a few hours' sleep at Suzy's house. When she yawned, the Old One smiled.

"You may rest here if you wish, I will watch for your friend's approach."

"Just for a minute," Ellie sighed, even as she slumped over and her eyes drooped closed.

* * *

Ellie was woken by a shout that rang in her head like a bell and filled her with such adrenaline that she hurtled to her feet before really registering what was going on.

"Wake up, child! Run! You just run now or they will have you!"

Ellie looked wildly around for the danger the Old One was warning her of. The clock hands were now pointing at noon and the chains tying him to them had shortened considerably. The Old One was now kneeling by the twelve with his wrists pulled behind his back. It was quite clear that he was completely immobile. Then the clock stuck twelve with a gong that vibrated through Ellie's bones. Two little trap doors opened on either side of the central pivot and a horribly, eerie giggling came from the holes. Ellie bolted, running faster than she had imagined she could until she came to the first complete pyramid she could find which she flung herself behind.

She paused to catch her breath and peer back the way she had fled. Something quite horrible had emerged from the trapdoors. Two wooden puppets, the size of full grown adults, rose out in a jerky clockwork motions. One was a man painted in green clothes, with a feathered cap on his head. He was holding a comically large woodcutter's axe which was chopping up and down as he moved on his track towards the number nine. The other was a woman in an apron and a frilly cap. She was holding a giant corkscrew which she jabbed down. She rolled towards the number three. Then both of them proceeded around the clock rim toward the Old One, their horrible weapons ready.

Ellie ducked back and screwed up her eyes, but she didn't clap her hands over her ears quickly enough to block the Old One's scream of agony. Heart hammering, she crouched behind the pyramid and shuddered. Then she let out a small scream as a hand closed around her arm, but when she looked she saw that it was only Pravuil.

"Come, we must go, now!" he said, clearly terrified.

"Are they going to kill him?" Ellie asked tremulously as he dragged her away. They stumbled through the coal field but the Old One's screams and the puppet's horrible giggling continued to echo all around them. Pravuil had a grimy lantern to light their way and he still hadn't let go of Ellie.

"Goodness no, they won't kill him. They have come to take his eyes, that's all. But sometimes they leave the clock face and take someone else's, and I don't think yours will grow back quite as effectively as the Old One's."

"They take his eyes?!" Ellie cried in a high-pitched voice.

"Yes, for all eternity. It used to be his liver, but then the Architect updated the prison a few millennia ago, so now it's a clock, and puppets, and his eyes. Every day at noon and midnight."

"What can he possibly have done to deserve that?" Ellie asked, her voice quieter now, horror coursing through her.

The more she heard about the Architect, the less she liked her. At least the screaming had stopped and the giggling subsided. Ellie shook Pravuil's hand off and rubbed her arms vigorously, for away from the clock the cold was more noticeable.

"He meddled on Earth, he broke the Original Law. The Architect hated people interfering with her creation."

"We weren't hers," Ellie muttered to herself. "And she sounds like a horrible old bitch to me."

Pravuil chose to ignore this comment.

"You have a visitor, ma'am. They gave me quite a fright when they showed up an hour or so ago. I told them to wait at my camp whilst I went to fetch you."

This captured the majority of Ellie's attention, although part of her was still imagining the agony of having one's eyes gouged out twice a day for all eternity. They had reached the part of the cellar where the coal was ordered neatly again and they were travelling far faster than Ellie had on her journey towards the clock. Pravuil seemed to know where he was going and strode through the gloom with confidence.

"Is it Suzy?" Ellie asked eagerly.

"Well that's what she said her name was. A Piper's Child, I think someone high up sent her with a message for you."

After a surprisingly short time Pravuil's camp came back into view and Ellie saw Suzy standing by the urn, warming her hands.

"Suzy!" Ellie sighed in relief, hurrying around the furniture and going to hug her, before thinking better of it. They had only just met a few hours ago after all. "Are you alright? Noon and that lot did catch you too did they?"

"Nope, but Monday's Dusk did. Well, he didn't catch us exactly, just came to talk to us. Nice of the Will not to mention it was him who helped it escape in the first place right? So the Will sent me down here to get you. And when I do catch up to you, I find you've gone off to the one place you ain't suppose to!" Suzy cried, rolling her eyes. Ellie was too busy staring at her to make any response to this. The Piper's Child was now wearing beautiful, pearly white wings that brushed the floor.

"Whaaat's with the wings?" Ellie asked, reached forward to poke one, it was soft to the touch but already collecting coal dust.

"Monday's Dusk gave them to me, but now I can't get the stupid things off!" Suzy complained, twisting this way and that, yanking at the wings and ruffling the feathers.

"Mine just fell off, but they were made of paper," said Ellie vaguely.

Pravuil, who had been listening quietly to this exchange, stepped forward. He was ringing his hands in an unctuous manner.

"Would you ladies care for refreshments?" he simpered. "I have some excellent Darjeeling which a friend of mine left behind when a Nithling bit off his head."

Not entirely sure they needed to know that last part, Ellie and Suzy accepted his offer. Ellie wasn't really in the mood for tea, she'd have preferred coffee, but she was still feeling groggy from her sudden return to wakefulness and wanted something to help boot her up. She stood until Pravuil had retrieved what he needed from the wooden chest, then they sat on the closed lid at his invitation. Suzy dropped into the armchair, apparently uncaring that Pravuil now had nowhere to sit.

He didn't seem to mind, he was too busy fiddling with the urn's many taps. It took him a while to work it all out but eventually he got it to shudder into action and steam spurted out of half a dozen tubes. Then the tea dribbled out of a tap and he quickly stuck the cups under the flow.

"No sign of the Will then?" Ellie asked after accepting her cup. She lifted it to her lips to take a sip but the smell almost made her gag. The concoction may have started life as tea, but Pravuil obviously wasn't very good at using his urn because it now had the consistency of treacle. Ellie pretended to drink just to be polite whilst Suzy full on pulled a face and put her cup aside.

"No, it was too scared," Suzy explained. "It hopped off quick once it found out where you was going. Said we had to meet up with it later. It wrote you a letter though."

She pulled out a creamy white envelope with an elaborate red seal. Ellie frowned at the seal, which held the imprint of a frog's webbed hand.

"You mean it dictated to you?" she asked, prising the seal open and groping inside for the letter. She then realised that the letter was written on the inside of the envelope and she had to unfold it.

"No, I mean it picked up a quill and wrote the whole thing itself," said Suzy. "It was well weird."

The Will had surprisingly elegant handwriting for a frog and Ellie's eyes quickly scanned the page.

_To Eleanor, Rightful Heir to the Keys to the Kingdom and Mistress of the Lower House, the Middle House, the Upper House, the Far Reaches, the Great Maze, the Incomparable Gardens, the Border Sea and those infinite territories beyond the House commonly called the Secondary Realms. _

_Greetings from your faithful servant, Paragraphs One to Seven of the Will of Our Supreme Creator, Ultimate Architect of All, conveyed to you by the hand of Suzy Turquoise Blue, human. _

"She almost as long-winded as Daenarys," Ellie muttered.

_Miss, I trust this finds you well and in good time to warn you that you must on no account approach the giant chained to the clock in the region you unfortunately and temporarily occupy. Called by some the Old One, he is extremely dangerous. I repeat, do not approach him or venture near the clock!_

_I regret your temporary incarceration, but assure you that our plans, though set back, are still in motion. Our next step, may I suggest, is for you to come directly to Monday's Antechamber; as I fear the Dayroom is more heavily guarded than anticipated. So, by means of the Improbable Stair, come to Monday's Antechamber. I have made a small sketch so you may visualise your destination. _

Ellie looked at the sketch. It was no bigger than her thumbnail and incredibly fine and detailed. It showed the inside of a room, or rather, a tent because there was pole in the middle. There were piles of cushions and a small table with a tall, thin jug and several wineglasses on it.

_The Improbable Stair exists everywhere there is somewhere to exist. You must imagine a stair where there is not one, a stair made of whatever you can see; be it a grass stem broken in three places or a step-shaped cloud. Then you must jump forward towards the first step of the stair. You must be the one to lead the way as only those of appropriate station and power may use the stair. Guide the other two by holding firmly onto them. _

_Once upon the stair, you will came across many landings which can emerge into the House or, more commonly, in the Secondary Realms. These can be at any point in time before the present and on each landing you must find the stair again immediately or you may be trapped there. The more focused you are your destination, the fewer landings there will be._

_If all goes as I expect, I will be waiting to greet you in Monday's Antechamber. I shall reveal the next stage of the plan when we meet again._

_Until then I remain your obedient and faithful servant._

_May the Will be done_

"Cheeky sod," Ellie muttered, passing the letter to Suzy so that she could read it too. "It's completely ignoring the fact that last time we talked, I told it I was going home!"

A thought entered her mind as she said this. If the Improbable Stair could lead to anywhere, she could easily take it to go home. Of course, that would leave poor Suzy in a pickle, but she had her wings. If she had gotten into the coal cellar, surely she could get out as well.

"I _could_ just go home," she said carefully. "There's nothing stopping me."

"Apart from Monday of course," Suzy snorted. "Look, I know you don't want to get involved in all this and I don't blame you, but I really don't think Mister Monday is just going to let you toddle on back to Earth. And the other Morrow Days are bound to find out about you sooner or later, so you won't ever be safe! But if you got the First Key, then you'd be a proper Day and then they won't be able to kill you or hurt you or nothing, they've got some sort of peace treaty thing that stops them from attacking each other."

Pravuil had stopped fixing his own tea to listen to their conversation with rapt attention. Ellie felt an explanation was owed.

"Um, yeah, I might not have been honest with you earlier," she said apologetically. "But it's probably safer for you if you pretend you didn't just hear that."

"Of course ma'am," he said quickly. "We don't hear anything important in the Coal Cellar."

He went back to his tea with renewed vigour.

"I think you're probably right Suzy," Ellie sighed after looking at the letter again. "I tried to talk to Monday but he just wasn't listening. So long as this doesn't get crazy dangerous, I think we should go along with the Will, for now!"

"Great!" said Suzy, jumping up eagerly. "I've always wanted to see the Dayroom! Let's go!"

Ellie gave a small groan and hoped she wasn't doing the wrong thing. Her hand reached up to throat to tug thoughtfully at her necklace, but it wasn't there.

"Oh no!" she wailed, leaping to her feet and looking around in a frenzy. "I can't have dropped off some – _wait_."

She turned her head to look in the direction she and Pravuil had come as she put two and two together. The Old One had grabbed her by the neck. Anger bubbled up inside Ellie like magma.

"Son of a bitch!" she cried, jumping to her feet. "He took it! He took it so I would have to go back afterwards!"

"Who took what?" Suzy asked in confusion as Ellie began striding away into the darkness.

"The Old One!" she raged. "He nicked my necklace! Slimy, sneaky bastard. Oh, thanks for the tea Pravuil!"

"Any time ma'am!" Pravuil called after them. Suzy hurried to catch up with Ellie.

"Why did you go and talk to him anyway?" she panted.

"Dusk told me to, he said he'd know all about the Improbable Stair. Turns out we don't need him to tell us now. Creep, he didn't even bother to tell me about the crazy clockwork thingies until it was almost too late."

That required some further explanation and after she had filled Suzy in on her conversation with the Old One and the terror of the clockwork horrors, the girl was looking at her as though she had gone mad.

"You fell asleep there?!" she demanded. "You fell asleep next to a crazy giant that everyone else had told you was dangerous. And you ate food that he conjured up out of thin air?!"

"Well, I was hungry," Ellie muttered, feeling rather stupid now. "And he was really interesting and then afterwards I got really tired and…"

She trailed off. She had grown exhausted suspiciously quickly. If she recalled correctly, she had just slumped where she had been sitting and fallen asleep there and then. The offer of food had also been suspiciously sudden. She decided not to reveal this to Suzy because she was feeling more and more foolish for having trusted the Old One so readily.

After a time they approached the clock and their steps slowed. There was no sign of the clockwork creatures and their horrible giggling had disappeared. Standing on tip toe, Ellie saw that the Old One was sitting on the far side of the clock. When they approached, he looked up. His eyes had grown back, although the area around there seemed rather red and sore looking. It was now quarter past one and the chains had slackened enough to let him sit comfortably next to the number twelve. He was rolling something between his massive forefinger and thumb.

"I suppose you came back for this," he said, holding it up for them both to see. The cross-shaped pendant looked especially tiny in his hand and Ellie felt a flutter of fear. He could easily crush the soft silver at any moment. "It must be precious to you, otherwise you would have cut your losses and left."

"It was my grandmother's, she left it to me in her will," Ellie snapped, stepping onto the clock but staying well out of the Old One's reach. "Why didn't you wake me earlier? Why didn't you tell me about those things?"

"I wished to test myself," said the Old One carefully. "To see if I could let a sleeping girl pay terribly for my day's respite. I decided it was not worth it."

Ellie felt herself in danger of feeling sorry for the Old One and her shoulders slumped.

"The Architect sounds like cow," she said bitterly and the Old One actually chuckled. "Isn't there anyway to stop those things?"

"No," the Old One sighed regretfully, also glancing at the trapdoors. "The chains were made by the Architect's own hand. Nothing can break them. Now then, do you still wish to know of the Improbable Stair?"

"Um, yes," Ellie said, deciding to hear if the Old One's description of the stair matched with the Will's. As it turned out, his description was so similar that it sounded like he was reading from the same text book as the Will's. He still hadn't handed Ellie's necklace back to her and her eyes followed it fretfully.

"Well, we're going to Monday's Antechamber to meet the Will now," she said. "I've decided to try and take the First Key off Monday after all."

"A wise choice," said the Old One, inclining his head. "And you will want this back before you go."

He held out his hand, palm up, and Ellie stepped forward to take her necklace. Once she did, the Old One grabbed her by the forearm again and Suzy let out an angry cry. She leapt forward to help her but the Old One held her at arm's length. He dragged Ellie closer and lowered his voice so that only she could hear his words.

"Trust no one," he whispered. "Especially the Will. It will use you to take its revenge on the Trustees and the more it uses you, the less of you there will be."

He let go of the girls simultaneously and the pair of them stumbled backwards. The humans scampered away from the clock as fast as they could, leaving the Old One sitting alone on his prison.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

**The Antechamber**

"I do not like that guy," Ellie growled once they were sufficient distance from the clock. Without the light of the chains or Pravuil's handy lantern, she'd needed to light her hands again but they only shed a tiny pool of light.

"Yeah, he's creepy," Suzy agreed. "So, are we going then?"

"Yeah, we just need to find something that looks like steps then we're all good."

The pair of them looked around but there was really nothing but coal. Dubiously, Ellie walked over to the nearest pyramid and tested it with her foot, but the whole thing collapsed the moment she put any weight on it.

"Oh bollocks," she sighed. "Well I guess we can use Pravuil's trunk, that was kind of like a step. But it's ages away."

"Hang on," said Suzy slowly, peering at another pyramid, one that was still complete. "Why don't you try telling the coals to stick together?"

"Can I do that?" Ellie asked in surprise and Suzy shrugged.

"Look, you can make your hands and eyes glow in the dark and order doors to lock and unlock. It's worth a shot."

Feeling that this wasn't going to work, Ellie approached the new pyramid and lightly touched the coal with the tips of her fingers.

"Uh, stick? Stick together."

At once the coals started to glow and Ellie snatched back her hand, worried she may have set them on fire, but the light faded after only a second or two. She gave the pile a little experimental kick and it stayed upright, as though the coals had been glued together.

"Well how about that. Ok, let's go, you need to hold on tight to my hand."

Ellie turned her attention to the pyramid and the gap of air above it. If this didn't work then she was going run headlong into the ceiling. But thinking things like that would mean it definitely wouldn't work, so she had to stop.

"Are you ok?" Suzy asked and Ellie nodded firmly.

"Yes, I'm just trying to get into the right frame of mind."

She was far too cynical for this sort of nonsense. Common sense told her this was utterly ridiculous, but then again, so was everything else that had happened. Before she could have time to think herself into a corner, Ellie started towards the pyramid. The coals held their weight alright and she screwed up her eyes so she wouldn't have to see the ceiling coming towards her. A gasp from Suzy made her take a peek, and then she gasped too.

They were no longer in the Coal Cellar.

White marble now gleamed beneath their grimy boots. The Improbable Stair was wide enough that four people could have walked up it side by side. On either side of the stair there was only blank whiteness. Ellie fixed her eyes on the steps and not on the impossible drop, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. It didn't take long for her legs to start burning and her breath to come in short, painful gasps.

"This is going to kill me," she wheezed. "Not Monday, this, this right here will kill me."

No sooner had the words left her mouth, than they heard an ominous clanging. The steps suddenly softened until they were wobbling all over the place, then they flattened completely to create a slide. With a cry, the humans slid uncontrollably back the way they had come before they were dumped unceremoniously onto what felt like sand.

Groaning, Ellie got onto all fours and blinked hard in the blinding sunlight. It was hideously hot, wherever they were, the sun was beating down on their heads mercilessly.

"Stair," Ellie muttered as she staggered onto her feet. "This is just a landing, we have to get onto the stair again. Let's find – oh my god!"

Ellie stared at the scene before her in wonder. They were standing in the middle of a work camp in full vigour. All around them muscular men, some in loincloths, some in no clothes at all, were calling to each other in a strange language and hauling sleds of stone and baskets of tools around. They were so busy no one appeared to have noticed the two strangers who had just landed in their midst. In front of them rose the stone blocks of a half completed temple or palace, mostly covered in wooden scaffolding.

_Alright, we're somewhere in the past, no big deal_, Ellie thought. They had to find the stair again or they'd be stuck here. Ellie grabbed Suzy by the hand again and they ran for the nearest steps they could find. These happened to be the rungs of a ladder leaning against the scaffolding and as they approached, angry shouts erupted all around them. They ignored them and scampered up the ladder until the ancient world disappeared in a flash and they were back on the Improbable Stair.

They ran for a time in complete silence, mainly because they couldn't afford to waste energy chatting. Ellie was wondering how the stair chose which landings to drop them on. _I have to concentrate on the Antechamber_. She started thinking the words 'Monday's Antechamber' over and over in her mind to see if that made any difference, but not for very long. The claxon was sounding again and the stair disappeared beneath their feet.

Because she was expecting it this time, Ellie was able to stay on her feet when they landed. A good thing too because the street in which they found themselves was half a foot deep in mud. The first thing they noticed after the mud, was the smell. It was as strong as the sun had been on the last landing and it's source became apparent immediately. Bodies. Hundreds of them, piled ten deep against the walls of the buildings, all bloated purple and green. The houses themselves were old fashioned in design, with exposed beams and thatched roofs, and on almost every wooden door was painted a symbol. A large red cross. There wasn't a living soul in sight.

After gazing at the crosses for a moment Ellie gasped and flung her arm over her mouth and nose.

"Black Death!" she shouted. "Don't go near the bodies, don't touch anything!"

She had no desire to stay in this wretched place a moment longer and she started looking wildly around for steps. Surely there was some in the houses, they were three stories tall. But she really didn't want to go into the homes of the dead. The decision was made for her when Suzy suddenly rushed towards a house with a blue door, and the red cross painted on it.

"Suzy, come back! We have to stick together!"

Ellie sprinted after the girl who had paused before the front door and was gazing at it with her mouth slightly open.

"I – I know this house," she said slowly, like a person who had just woken up and wasn't sure where they were. "This – this is my house! I lived here!"

She looked at the pile of bodies next to her and reached out but Ellie grabbed her just in time.

"Don't look at them!" Ellie ordered crossly. "Don't think about them! Think about the House, only the House!"

She kicked open the door to avoid having to touch anything and rushed across the tiny hallway. There were steps, narrow and tall and she tripped almost at once. Ignoring the pain, she pushed herself back up and saw the Improbable Stair waiting for them. Seventeenth century Europe faded out of sight and they were back in the relative safety of the stair.

"That was my house!" Suzy wailed. "What happened?! Why was everybody dead?!"

"I thought you said you couldn't remember your life before the House?" Ellie asked, unwilling to answer Suzy's question.

"I didn't," Suzy sniffed. "I don't. But, sometimes, us kids get flashes of stuff. Like the front door, I remember helping my da paint that front door. And I remember the Piper coming to take me away."

_Probably a good thing he did_, Ellie thought privately. Some entire towns had died in the plague. This would have been an entirely tactless thing to say however so instead she asked,

"Who's this Piper you're on about?"

Suzy had mentioned him back in Quill Street but Ellie had been too preoccupied with her own predicament at the time to really register it.

"He brought us to the House," Suzy explained, but she sounded distracted. Ellie glanced over her shoulder and saw that Suzy was gazing back down the stairs. "I guess he was a denizen, all I really remember is the music. Too much washing between the ears."

"Suzy! Stop looking back! Just think about the House!" Ellie ordered.

She knew she was being cruel but they couldn't afford any distractions on the stair. When they got back to the House, Suzy would have plenty of time to grieve. Ellie had a feeling they might be coming to the end of their journey and up ahead she could definitely see colours shimmering among the white.

"We're nearly there!" she panted excitedly, picking up the pace even though her legs were on fire. They just had twenty more steps to go, ten, five, two!

The humans toppled out of the Improbable Stair when their feet ran out of steps. They fell sprawling across a pile of cushions, and came to rest looking up at a small green frog that was seating of top of a silver cake stand that had several chocolate eclairs and colourful macaroons on the lower levels.

"An opportune arrival!" the Will boomed, its voice still far too deep and loud to be coming out of such a tiny creature. "Welcome to Monday's Antechamber."

Ellie looked around. They were inside a silken tent, a round one with a central pole. The floor was covered in expensive looking rugs but underneath these, Ellie could feel gravel. The cake stand, and the small table on which it sat, was the only piece of furniture in the place.

"This is Monday's Antechamber?" she asked sceptically, picking herself up and helping Suzy to do the same.

"No, this is a tent," said the Will flatly. "One of thousands encamped in the Antechamber proper. It is an excellent place to go unnoticed. Now then, I have managed to procure tickets for you so that if we are stopped by the inspectors, you will not be thrown out."

It indicated a couple of paper tags next to it and Ellie reached out to pick one up. The number on it read 98, 564. As she attached it to the front of her waistcoat with the safety pin provided, she glanced at Suzy's and saw that hers bore a similar number.

"There can't possibly be that many people waiting to see Monday," she said dubiously.

"Oh yeah there are," Suzy said, helping herself to an éclair. "Monday only manages to see a couple of people every year, so the Antechamber's filling up. I know some mates who have been living here for a few years now."

"You mean everyone just stays here until he's ready to see them?" Ellie asked incredulously. "For years and years? What about their jobs? How does anything get done in the Lower House?"

"It does not," the Will boomed, gesturing for Ellie to hold out her hand, which she did, and it hopped onto it with a faint splat. "I spoke to you of this earlier. Sloth, it seeps from Monday through the Lower House until all the services it provides grind to a halt."

"We're not going to be stuck in a queue are we?" Ellie asked sharply, transferring the Will to her shoulder where it crawled beneath her collar and out of sight.

"Not at all, we are free to move about the Antechamber as we wish, just keep your tickets on display and we shan't be bothered. Unless someone recognises you of course. Now then, we are going to rendezvous with Monday's Dusk. He claims to know a weirdway into Monday's Dayroom. We will sneak through this, take the First Key from Monday, and all will be well."

Suzy gave a disbelieving snort and Ellie couldn't help but agree.

"Are you sure we can trust Dusk?" she asked. "He could be leading us right to Monday!"

"He is a true and loyal servant of the Architect, he will not betray us," the Will said confidently.

Ellie frowned dubiously as she undid the ties of the tent flap and ducked outside. The 'room' they now found themselves in was more like the Atrium than the Upper Coal Shaft Entrance. The ceiling was way, way above their heads, though this one was flat and painted blue, rather than an opaque glass dome. Ellie couldn't tell how big the room was given that she found herself in the middle of a crowd and was a good deal shorter than everyone around her. There was talking, laughter and just plain noise all around her and above their heads, winged figures swooped back and forth.

She watched the path of one denizen as she swooped in a graceful ark, but then something else caught Ellie's attention. A huge, conical structure stood not too far away. It looked large enough to hold a several houses and was almost as tall as the ceiling. It was as if a volcano had just sprouted up out of the floor one day.

"What's that?" she asked quietly, nodding towards it. Suzy answered before the Will could blow their cover with its loud voice.

"The Dayroom. There's a big gate on one side, and that's the official entrance like, so it's guarded by Commissionaires. I've never been inside me-self."

"Couldn't someone just fly in through the top?" asked Ellie, eyeing the mountain structure curiously. Suzy was still wearing her wings after all.

"Nah, there's some sort of magical jiggery-pokery that fries anyone who tries."

They made their way towards the Dayroom through the crowds and as they went, Ellie watched the denizens around them. Unlike the Atrium denizens, these weren't pretending to be busy with work. Many were reading, writing, playing board games or cards, juggling, eating delicate little cakes and drinking tea, staring at her…

Ellie did a double take. There was something familiar about the man watching her. He was well dressed, his tailcoat, waistcoat and pantaloons were all pale pink, and he had long, drooping mustachios. The moment their eyes met he scuttled away, and it was the way he walked that gave him away.

"That's Pravuil!" Ellie cried, pointing after him. "I met him in the coal cellar. I wonder how he got out."

"A spy!" the Will growled. "Quickly! Head for the crimson tent with the golden ball on top of the pole."

Ellie saw it and hurried towards it as quickly as she could.

"You think he's working for Monday?" she asked.

"He may be, so we must hurry before he brings the Commissionaires down upon us."

They entered the red tent, which was much larger than the one they had arrived in, and hung with many dividing curtains. The light was poor and Ellie blinked in the sudden gloom.

"Where are we supposed to go?" she whispered.

"Follow the rim of the tent until you come to the back entrance. There will be a passage between a stack of boxes.

Ellie groped her way forward and kept one hand on the side of the tent so she'd know where she was going. The tent felt much bigger than it seemed on the outside, like a circus top, and the noise from outside was somehow muffled. They eventually came to the passage the Will had mentioned and they ducked through it. The boxes were stacked in a precarious fashion. Each was the size of an old fashioned tea chest and there were hundreds of them, piled up in rows of twenty or thirty feet high.

Upon closer examination, Ellie saw that they _were_ tea-chests, and they had ink stamps on the side reading things like BEST CEYLON and HIGH GROWN DIMBOLE. At the end of the passage they came up against the side of the Dayroom wall which was smooth grey stone. Ellie reached out and touched it.

"What now?" she asked.

"Now, you stay exactly where you are, or I will visit whatever torments I can upon you, and many more on your friend," declared a familiar voice from above as a shadow a wide-swept wings fell across the stone surface.

Ellie and Suzy whipped around and pressed their backs against the wall. Monday's Noon spread his wings wider and dropped to the ground. As he landed the crates were pushed out of the way, creating a domino effect all the way back down the passage. Dozens of Commissionaires bulled their way through the mess, reducing the crates to matchwood and forming a wedge behind Noon. Noon raised his hand and his flaming sword appeared there. It crackled and spat, and the flames lengthened.

"I suppose this one is the Piper's Child you were seen with earlier," Noon said, nodding to Suzy who winced as the flames crept closer. "How fortunate. Now then, human, if you do not tell me where the Will is hiding, I will be forced to burn this child."

Ellie ducked her chin and hissed from the corner of her mouth to the Will, which was hiding under her collar,

"What do we do now?!"

"Both of you need to step forward a little," replied a voice that was not the Will's.

Ellie looked over her shoulder and was surprised to find that a door had formed in the wall. A dark, shadowy gap where there hadn't been one before. And standing there was Monday's Dusk. Ellie and Suzy stepped out of the way smartly so that Dusk and half a dozen Midnight Visitors could come through.

"Go through the doorway and follow the tunnel," he told them. "The Dayroom is unguarded."

Noon's smile had slipped when Dusk had appeared and moved to stand in front of the humans. Then it became a frown when Dusk drew his own sword, with a blade black as night and sparkling with starlight.

"What is this?" Noon stormed. "Why are you helping them?"

"Because it is over, Noon, over for Monday. We will let them go on their way."

"Traitor!" Noon hissed. "Step aside!"

Dusk raised his sword and Noon thrust his own at Suzy with a snarl. Ellie gave a cry of fear but Dusk brought his own blade up to intercept it just in time. He and Noon exchanged a series of blows too fast to follow. The Midnight Visitors rushed to meet the Commissionaires. Whips flashed with sonic booms as batons and swords crackled with lightning. The remains of the tea chests caught fire and smoke began to spread.

Dusk and Noon appeared to be evenly matched but there were far fewer Visitors than Commissionaires. Dusk ducked under a cut and grabbed his brother's arm. Before Noon could break free he was thrown into a summersault and hurled into the air.

"Go!" Dusk shouted as black wings burst from his back and he launched himself into the sky.

Noon streaked up like a rocket and then he turned and plunged to meet his brother's ascent. They met with a shriek and the two tumbled down, still fighting. The Will shouted,

"Young lady, get in the –"

Noon and Dusk struck the ground like a shooting star, right in the middle of the melee. The force of the impact rocked the Antechamber and knocked down everyone in the vicinity. Before anyone could crawl out the crater, Ellie turned, grabbed Suzy, and jumped into the tunnel. Once they were inside, the entrance snapped shut behind them and they were plunged into darkness. Ellie fell over almost at once because the floor wobbled like a trampoline. When she put her hands out to steady herself she found that they were soft too.

"What is this?!" she asked, taking a few precarious steps.

"A weirdway is a path through Nothing," the Will explained. "They exploit the interstices of the structure of the House. There is no danger of this one collapsing so long as it is well made. Now, forward!"

The humans made their unsteady way along the tunnel. Ellie asked for light but there was nothing to see except their own hands and feet anyway. Now that they were getting closer to their goal, she was beginning to see a flaw in the plan.

"Uh, so what are we supposed to do once we find Monday?" she asked nervously.

"Take the Key," said the Will promptly. "Monday himself will undoubtedly be asleep. Once you are close enough, place your hand on the First Key and recite your claim."

"And – is there something special I have to say?"

"I, Eleanor, anointed Heir to the Kingdom, claim this Key and with it the Mastery of the Lower House. I claim it by blood, and bone, and contest, out of truth, in testament, and against all trouble. Got that?"

"Not even close," Ellie sighed. "Can I hear it again please?"

It was awfully pretentious sounding, especially when Ellie repeated it back to herself. She hated pomposity. And she still wasn't clear on the plan.

"So I have to somehow touch the First Key whilst Monday is asleep? What if he has it in his hand? What if he's not asleep? Or what if he wakes up?"

"Then we shall improvise."

"Oh my god, we're doomed," Ellie groaned.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

**The Dayroom**

The Weirdway came to an abrupt and unexpected stop. There was no light to indicate the end of the tunnel, one moment Ellie was wobbling along, the next she was stepping into daylight. The change in ground firmness threw her off balance and she stumbled a few steps before steadying herself. They had emerged into a quiet garden, with overgrown grass and messy gravel paths. The topiary around them looked quite ragged and was too overgrown for Ellie to tell what shapes they had been cut to originally. She supposed Monday didn't spend much time strolling in his garden, therefore there was no need to maintain it.

As Dusk had said there weren't any guards in sight but the humans still crept through the garden cautiously, keeping their eyes peeled. They skirted the edge of a scummy pond and up a low set of steps, heading for the large mansion directly in front of them. It was a handsome building, built from pale yellow stone with tall windows on three floors. From the front it probably looked very grand, but they were approaching from the side. When they came to the end of the hedge they'd been following, Ellie threw out an arm.

"See anything dodgy?" she whispered. Before them was a wide path dividing the Dayroom from its garden and they would be exposed if they took one more step. Suzy peered cautiously around the hedge and shook his head.

"I can see the front gates, and I think there are Commissionaires on the other side, but they're facing away."

"OK," Ellie muttered. "On the count of three, we'll all run across the path and to the window. I'll get it open and hopefully, no one will see us."

They braced themselves and on Ellie's count they sprinted across the gravel and thumped against the wall of the mansion. Ellie was about to reach up to the window when the Will crawled out from under her collar and looked around.

"What is it?" Ellie asked in an undertone, for the Will looked troubled.

"The First Key, I can sense it. But it isn't inside the Dayroom, it is somewhere below us."

The frog leapt from Ellie's shoulder to land on the gravel path and it began to hop away around the edge of the house and onto the very exposed front lawn. Ellie and Suzy followed it.

"Hey! You're going to get us spotted you idiot!" Ellie hissed.

She nearly trod on the Will because it had come to a halt on top of a metal hatch in the ground.

"The Key is in here," it said triumphantly, patting the metal. Ellie tested the handle. Oddly enough it wasn't locked and she found a metal ladder leading down into a dark hole.

Ellie climbed down the rungs as quietly as she could. It was very dark, and the heat was rising every second so that by the time she reached another metal door at the bottom, she was sweating. She went to turn the handle but snatched her hand back almost at once with a cry of pain. The metal was extremely hot.

"Be quiet!" the Will intoned irritably. "We are very close, I can sense the Key ahead."

"Why is it so hot?" Suzy asked.

Ellie gathered up the hem of her shirt in her hand and used this to open the door. A wave of steam hit her in the face and she gagged on the horrible smell that assaulted her senses. She took a cautious step forward and found herself standing on a platform of old black-brown cast iron, with thick swirling steam all around them. She looked down and saw through the diamond weave of the floor yellow mud bubbling sluggishly some fifteen feet below them. Every time a bubble burst it sent up a wave of smell.

"What a stink!" Suzy coughed. "Smells like the match factory in here!"

"That'd be sulphur then," said Ellie worriedly, peering over the side of the platform. "Try not to breathe it in."

An extremely narrow, one-person bridge led out from the platform into the steamy interior. It was iron too and had the monogram MM cast into the diamond weave every few meters. The steam was too thick for Ellie to see where the bridge led and she glanced at the Will nervously, who nodded.

"Come on then," Ellie sighed, stepping onto the bridge.

There weren't any railings so she crouched low to avoid overbalancing and tumbling into the mud below. At least the bridge didn't wobble, not even when they both added their weight to it.

Ellie glanced back to make sure Suzy was keeping up but saw that she wasn't. She was staring up into the clouds above them.

"There's something up there," she muttered, drawing a short, silver knife from her belt.

Ellie looked up just into time to see and shadowy figure dip out of the steam. Not Mister Monday, thankfully, but someone dressed head to foot in salmon and now sporting a pair of yellow wings, and a crossbow.

"Pravuil!" Ellie cried, ducking as he took aim with the crossbow. The bolt whistled through the air towards her but even as she screamed and raised her hands, it pinged off the invisible barrier around her, just as Noon's sword and the Commissionaire's club had. The bolt spun away into the mud.

"Nothing personal ma'am," Pravuil called. "Simply a commercial priority. Now I must sound the alar – argh!"

He let out a yelp of pain. Suzy had thrown her knife and it was now embedded in Pravuil's left foot. As he flapped around trying to tug the blade free, Suzy launched herself into the air and collided with him. The two of them disappeared into the steam and soon even the sound of their cursing faded away. Ellie craned her neck desperately but she couldn't see anything.

"Stupid, brave idiot!" she muttered, still searching for Suzy, but to no avail.

"We must keep moving," the Will insisted. "Once you have the Key you will be able to assist her."

After waiting a few more seconds, Ellie shook her head and scurried along the bridge. Her feet rang on the metal but there wasn't much she could do about that. She went along for quite a while and things were confused further when she came across other bridges veering off to the left and right. The Will insisted that they needed to stay on the central path, so they did, though Ellie glanced nervously around every time they came to a junction, expecting some kind of ambush. As she went, Ellie whispered the Will's instructions over and over to herself, and wondered what on earth Monday was doing with all this mud in his cellar.

The bridge came to an abrupt end and Ellie nearly walked right into the mud. She caught herself in time and she peered around anxiously. Ellie spotted Monday just a few feet away and she braced herself instinctively, but he was sound asleep. He was slumped in the mud pool up to his waist and his head was thrown back against the rock, his mouth wide open in a snore. He appeared to have cucumber slices over his eyes. Ellie's eyes zeroed in on the golden implement in his right hand and she swallowed. That was it, the First Key, it had to be. There was a small set of steps leading down to the edge of the pool and Ellie edged down it, not daring to make a sound.

Once she was within a few feet of Monday, she saw that the cucumbers were actually gold coins and she frowned at these for a second, before lowering her eyes to the Key again. She didn't want to go any closer, so she went down on her haunches and reached out with a trembling hand. The Key was inches from the tips of her fingers when the gold coins on Monday's eyes screamed into the air. They made an almighty racket, ringing like bells and Ellie jerked back, clapping her hands over her ears. Monday's eyes flew open and fixed on her.

For a second, they started at each other, then Ellie bolted. With a roar of anger that chilled her to the bone, Monday rose out of the mud. He was thankfully wearing pants and golden wings erupted from his shoulders, casting a menacing shadow over the humans.

Once she gained the bridge again she pelted away as Monday swooped over her.

"When I get my hands on you, I'm going to put you in the deepest, darkest hole I can find!" Monday shouted.

"I never did anything to you!" Ellie shouted back, quite indignant about the whole affair.

She heard something whoosh through the air behind her and she managed to dive onto an adjacent path just in time to avoid being hit by the crackle of energy. Instead, it struck the bridge where she had just been moments before. The metal cracked and suddenly the entire apparatus lurched into the mud and Ellie slid towards it until she clung to the diamond weave.

"Not you, idiot human, I am talking to the Will!" Monday snarled from above. His Key was trained on Ellie's shoulder where the Will had dove into her shirt for cover.

"Traitor!" came the Will's muffled cry from the folds of the clothes. "The Architect's Will shall be done!"

Monday threw back his Key like a whip and Ellie, completely exposed on the tilting planform, could see nowhere to go. Then, out of nowhere, Suzy dive bombed the Master of the Lower House. She latched herself onto his leg and clung there as he kicked and writhed. Their combined weight and the fact that their wings were all tangled together, sent them plunging into the pool below. Mud spattered all over Ellie as the struggling mass hit the surface and sank below. For a moment, there was silence, apart from Ellie's shocked panting.

Then the mud exploded as Monday Suzy popped their heads out. Suzy was punching the Day and trying to put him in a headlock, quite ineffectually, but at least it kept him distracted. Monday was snarling at her, slashing with his Key but unable to reach his attacker. The Key instead struck the tilted platform on which Ellie was crouched, and the whole thing dropped into the mud. Ellie took a gasp of air before being submerged entirely. It was not at all like being underwater. The mud was heavy and hot and not easy to move through. Ellie struggled her way back to the surface and coughed violently, trying to wipe the mud free from her eyes and mouth. Her other hand flailed around looking for something to grab onto, and her fingers closed around something smooth and metallic.

"The Key!" the Will gurgled as it clawed its way up Ellie's neck and onto her head. "Make the claim! Quickly!"

"I, Eleanor, anointed Heir to the Kingdom,"

Monday's head emerged from the mud right in front of her. His expression was livid and he tried to yank the Key out of Ellie's grip. Since she didn't let go, he simply succeeded in pulled her closer towards him and Ellie's first instinct was to kick him in the stomach.

"Claim this Key and with it Mastery of the Lower House, I claim it by blood, and bone and contest – aw!"

She tried to gabble the whole claim out as quickly as possible but Monday was having none of that. He grabbed a handful of her hair and seemed about to rip her head off when the Will leapt onto his face and took a gouge at his eyes. Monday let go of Ellie's hair to try and deal with that, and to deal with Suzy who had just re-joined the fight after being thrown away. Ellie put a foot on Monday's chest and tugged with all her strength on the Key, pushing him away for herself.

"Out – out of truth – and against all trouble!" she shrieked – and the Key broke free from Monday's grip.

* * *

Noon and Dusk's fight had moved from the Antechamber to the front lawn of the Dayroom. Noon, thinking he had beaten his brother senseless, had rushed through the gates in the mountain side to warn his master that the pest was on its way. However, he had wildly underestimated Dusk's determination and halfway down the drive he'd been set upon from the sky. Now the two of them were locked in what seemed to be a match to the death, each blow of their swords coming perilously close to ending their opponent. The Commissionaires and Midnight Visitors had stopped fighting each other and were standing in a circle around the two Times, at a loss for what to do. None of them wanted to intervene in a fight this deadly. Dawn alighted on the edge of the duel and took in the sight with an open mouth.

"What in the Void is going on!" she shrieked. "Stop it! Stop it both of you!"

When neither of them listened, Dawn scowled and held out her hand. Out of mid-air she drew a long, golden whip and everyone in the vicinity drew back even further.

"I said stop it!" she bellowed, cracking her whip at her brothers.

The two of them were thrown away from each other as the whip cracked with a sonic boom. Dusk landed upright and slid a few feet before coming to rest in a fighting stance. Noon wasn't so lucky, he thumped into the ground and ripped up the grass before lunging to his feet again.

"Stay out of this, Dawn!" Noon snarled. "You don't know what he's done! He is a traitor! He has betrayed Mister Monday!"

Dawn looked in bewilderment from Noon to Dusk for a few moments before settling on her younger brother.

"What is he saying?!" she demanded. "How could you betray our master? What did you do?"

"He aided the Will! He set it free! He is helping those damn humans run amok in the Lower House!" Noon screamed.

Dawn looked again at Dusk for confirmation and Dusk closed his eyes briefly and sighed.

"I'm sorry, sister," he muttered.

Then he and Noon were at each other's throats again. Dawn hung back, hovering around the edge and unsure what to do. If she were to intervene, on who's side should she fight? Perhaps she should just go and fetch the master himself to deal with this. As if on cue, they all heard the sound of rusted metal screeching. Noon and Dusk stepped back briefly and looked down at the ground. In the middle of the lawn, right between the two Times, a metal hatch was flung open. It clanged on the ground and for a few seconds, nobody moved. Every denizen present stared at the hole in the lawn, and then jumped, as a muddy arm emerged holding the First Key.

The arm was followed by an even muddier human who half rose out of the hole before giving up and slumping the top half of her body on the grass. After panting for a few seconds, she raised her head and looked around at all the denizens.

"Oh god, I don't have to fight you lot too do I?" she groaned.

She tried once again to lift herself out of the hole and Dusk rushed forward to help. He lifted her up under her arms and set her on her feet, though she staggered from exhaustion almost immediately. Ellie leant forward and rested her hands on her thighs, swearing under breath and shaking her head. Mud was still dripping from her hair and the tip of her nose. Then she turned back and helped Dusk lift Suzy out of the shaft.

"Hey, you got it," Suzy panted happily, pointing at the Key in Ellie's hand.

"Yeah I guess," she sighed.

There was a rustling sound that made her look up. To her astonishment, every single Commissionaire and Midnight Visitor on the lawn had dropped to one knee and bowed their heads to her. The only people not kneeling were Dawn, Noon and Dusk, and the latter opted for a formal bow at the waist.

"My lady," he said, smiling.

"Who, me?" Ellie said blankly, pointing to herself. "No – no, no, no, you can all get up really, this doesn't mean anything!"

"It means that you are Mistress of the Lower House!" said the Will, who had just hopped out of the shaft unaided and was looking approvingly up at her.

"No it doesn't," said Ellie crossly. "I don't want to be in charge of this mess, I want to go home!"

The Will, apparently, chose not to hear this. Instead it looked at Dawn and Noon who still hadn't bowed. Noon was holding his sword and looking at Ellie with a mixture of astonishment and bitter anger.

"Where is the master?" he snarled at her and Ellie gestured back towards the hole.

"Down there somewhere," she said tiredly. "I didn't hurt him."

"Although you make a good point," the Will said, turning to Dusk. "Send some of your men to retrieve the former Mister Monday."

Dusk, oddly, looked at Ellie as if he wanted confirmation of this order and Ellie nodded with a shrug. As three Midnight Visitors jumped down the shaft, Ellie looked down at the First Key. It was about as long as her forearm and shaped like a clock hand, with a sharp point at one end. She shuddered to think about the damage it could have done if Monday had managed to pierce any of them. They were really very lucky that he had been slow and sluggish.

Ellie began to try and wipe off as much mud from her face as she could, before they all heard the sound of a crossbow releasing and an ominous whistling. The First Key glowed suddenly and twisted in Ellie's arm, intercepting a bolt before it could embed itself in Suzy who stood beside her. Everyone whipped around to see Pravuil standing over by the mansion, reloading his crossbow. Dawn gave an indignant cry and brought her whip up to strike at the intruder. Pravuil just managed to dodge the whip and then decided to cut his losses and run for it. He slapped his hand in mid-air and a small elevator appeared in front of him, no bigger than a telephone booth. Pravuil disappeared in a flash of gold that streaked up towards the ceiling.

"That creep, I thought I finished him off!" Suzy cried, scowling up after him.

"What in name of the Architect was my cousin doing here?!" Dawn demanded and Ellie raised her eyebrows at her.

"He's your cousin?!" she asked in surprise and Dawn pulled a face.

"Cousin-in-office," she allowed. "Pravuil, he has been Saturday's Dawn for three thousand years or so now. Who does he think he is, slithering around here?"

"As I feared, the other Days have already begun meddling in our affairs," the Will said grimly. "We shall need to deal with them accordingly. Ah! And here comes our first case to be tried."

The Midnight Visitors had returned, hauling Mister Monday out of the hole. He was covered head to foot in mud and seemed to have lost the will to fight. He was dropped on his knees in front of Ellie who took an instinctive step back.

"Execution," said the Will, with satisfaction. "It is quite easy. Simply touch him on the head with the Key and say 'from Nothing to Nothing', and he will be returned to the Void."

"_What?_!" Ellie took even more steps back, staring at the Will in horror. "I'm not killing anyone!"

The Will frowned at her, apparently not understanding why she was so reluctant to commit murder.

"This denizen just tried to kill you," it said slowly, as if she was being stupid. "He has corrupted everything in the Lower House, he broke the Will of the Architect. The penalty for these crimes is death."

"Didn't you just say I was in charge now?" Ellie asked and the Will nodded in confusion. "Well then, no more death penalty. The Coal Cellar was pretty horrible, let's put him down there for a few centuries."

"A few centuries?!" the Will cried indignantly. "Is that all?"

"Oh I don't know, I meant for the moment," Ellie sighed. "Yeah, let's put him there."

The denizens around her seemed to take this as an order became a couple of Commissionaires rushed forward to grabbed Monday by the arms and drag him away. He didn't try to resist. The Will gave a huff but let the matter go for the time being.

"So, uh, what now?" Ellie asked when there had been an awkward silence for some time.

"Now, young lady, I think you should have a bath, a hot cup of tea and a change of clothes," said the Will, leaping from the grass to land on Dusk's overcoat. The Time helpfully held out his hand palm up and the frog crawled onto to it so it could address the crowd.

"Monday's Times and all general staff attached to the Dayroom or the Antechamber will follow us inside. There is much work to be done. Monday's Dawn, have some of your Auditors stationed around the grounds. If the Morrow Days are already working against us, I do not want to be caught off guard again."

Instead of jumping into action, everyone in the vicinity looked at Ellie. She looked wearily down at the Key clutched in her muddy hand. She was feeling sticky and uncomfortable and utterly drained.

"Uh, yeah that sounds sensible. I'll have a wash and a sit down and then we can work out what to do next."

As most of the denizens gathered began to move back towards the front gates, a small group accompanied Ellie and the Will towards the steps leading into the Dayroom. Halfway there however, a powerful light-headedness overcame Ellie. She supposed she'd been simply ignoring her exhaustion in the face of the danger around her. But now that all was calm and she was safe, it hit her like a ton of bricks. Luckily, even as she swayed and her legs gave out under her, Monday's Dusk caught her around the middle.

"My lady?" he muttered in concern. Ellie didn't have the strength to hold herself up anymore and her head lolled onto Dusk's chest.

"I'm getting mud all over you," she mumbled apologetically and Dusk smiled.

"Nothing to worry about, my lady. Let's get you inside and you can have a proper rest."

"Ok," Ellie sighed, barely noticing as Dusk lifted her deftly in his arms and her vision turned black.


End file.
